WiFi Electromagnetic Field Modelling for Indoor Localization

The aim of this paper is to develop simplified model for WiFi electromagnetic field propagation. The model can be used in preliminary estimation of WiFi transmitter localization for the purpose of WiFi-based indoor localization. It can be particularly useful when designing structural networks. We have developed a simplified linear model of WiFi electromagnetic field modelling and compared it with the most commonly used, more sophisticated models and with measurement results which were carried out in the laboratory. As demonstrated by the results of measurements conducted using various hardware, the accuracy of this simplified model introduced is similar to the commonly used models, but the number of parameters is lower. Therefore, our model easier to implement in real life conditions. The model presented in this paper enables WiFi electromagnetic field modelling when the exact values of propagation parameters and transmitter characteristics is unknown. This is usually the case at the early stage of structural network design, when exact parameters of building construction materials are not known. As the model is very simple, it does not require much effort to deploy, while its accuracy is sufficient for preliminary WiFi transmitter localization. Simplified models of WiFi electromagnetic field propagation are known, but no comparative research combined with measurements has been done in this field. This paper provides a comparison of different electromagnetic field models which can be applied to WiFi electromagnetic field propagation together with measurement results.