Security Threats and Performance Evaluation of Ultra Wideband and Bluetooth Low Energy Technologies for Indoor Positioning

Abstract

The most basic positioning technology GPS cannot be used effectively due to the distortion of its signals in closed areas. Therefore, different technologies are used for positioning within these areas. Examples of these technologies include Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), a low-power and cost-effective technology, and Ultra Wideband (UWB) technologies that have many advantages by broadcasting with short pulses at high bandwidth. In this study, indoor positioning systems were developed using BLE and UWB technologies, and security threats and location prediction performances of these systems were examined. There are differences between BLE and UWB technologies such as standard, bandwidth and distance estimation algorithms. Because of these differences, the security threats related to these two technologies differ. In this context, security problems that may arise depending on the technology used in the system are mentioned. In addition, the performance of these systems developed using these two different technologies, was compared by conducting distance and positioning tests in the same area with an area of 12m x 15m. In the tests conducted to compare the positioning performance from these tests, it was calculated that the UWB indoor positioning system had a positioning error of 0.43 m and the BLE indoor positioning system had a positioning error of 1.54 m in the same environment.