Low-Complexity and High-Accuracy Positioning Protocol Based on an Asynchronous Protocol

Abstract

Currently, Global Positioning System (GPS) is widely used as a representative position estimation system. However, GPS suffers from poor position estimation accuracy in an indoor environment. Moreover, time synchronization between devices needs to be performed for position estimation which is a resource intensive process. In previous studies, an asynchronous protocol (i.e., no synchronization requirement) called Grid Search was proposed to handle this problem. However, this method also has high complexity and takes a lot of search time to estimate the position. In this paper, we propose a method to narrow the search range using intersecting chord under the condition that generated circles intersect with each other. The proposed position estimation method has low complexity but can achieve accuracy comparable to Grid Search, i.e., a maximum estimation error less than 2 meters with 80% of the trials are within 1 meter. In addition, the calculation time can be reduced up to 6 times compared to the Grid Search when the search range extends to 5 times.