Performance analysis of a low cost wireless indoor positioning system with distributed antennas

Abstract. In this paper an approach for indoor localization based on already installed communication transceiver infrastructure is presented. Only marginal additional hardware is required to implement the localization functionality. The idea is to use a power level detection evaluation of the received signals in communication receivers to localize participants. In the planned configuration the power transmitted from mobile terminals is received by a leaky wave cable. Its length and coupling properties are dimensioned according to the dynamic range of two access points connected to the two cable heads. In order to adapt the problem to circuit-based analysis techniques the leaky wave cable is represented by a distributed antenna system. Thereby the considered design consists of a cascade of coupling structures with broadband Vivaldi antennas connected to the coupling ports. An experimental system has been built and also tested using an automated frequency domain measurement setup. Measurement results relating the system bandwidth to positioning accuracy show good agreement with theoretical investigations.