When FTM Discovered MUSIC: Accurate WiFi-based Ranging in the Presence of Multipath

Abstract

The recent standardization by IEEE of Fine Timing Measurement (FTM), a time-of-flight based approach for ranging has the potential to be a turning point in bridging the gap between the rich literature on indoor localization and the so-far tepid market adoption. However, experiments with the first WiFi cards supporting FTM show that while it offers meter-level ranging in clear line-of-sight settings (LOS), its accuracy can collapse in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) scenarios.We present FUSIC, the first approach that extends FTM’s LOS accuracy to NLOS settings, without requiring any changes to the standard. To accomplish this, FUSIC leverages the results from FTM and MUSIC – both erroneous in NLOS – into solving the double challenge of 1) detecting when FTM returns an inaccurate value and 2) correcting the errors as necessary. Experiments in 4 different physical locations reveal that a) FUSIC extends FTM’s LOS ranging accuracy to NLOS settings – hence, achieving its stated goal; b) it significantly improves FTM’s capability to offer room-level indoor positioning.