Sub-Area Localization: A Simple Calibration Free Approach

Simple calibration-free localization techniques using proximity to multiple monitoring stations are cost-effective and avoid the need for laborious measurements, calibration, and large search spaces for RF fingerprints. Proximity-based localization does not suffer from multi-path problems associated with localization that employs time, time difference, or angle of arrival measurements. We propose Sub-Area Localization (SAL) that uses the sub-areas created by the overlapping ranges of monitoring stations (MoSs) to estimate the location of a mobile node. We investigate the relationship between localization accuracy (that depends on the number and sizes of sub-areas) and the monitoring ranges of MoSs when they are placed on a virtual grid in a given workspace. We present analytical and simulation results that allow us to determine the "best" range of monitoring stations, and understand the limits on the accuracy performance of SAL.