A Review of Wi-Fi-Based Traffic Detection Technology in the Field of Intelligent Transportation Systems

With the increasing innovation and development of Wi-Fi technology, its penetration in the various fields of industry and academia is becoming more and more profound. As the core infrastructure of traffic data collection in the field of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), Wi-Fi-based traffic detectors have great potential for use in traffic target positioning, perception, and pattern recognition due to their low cost and extensive infrastructure deployment. This paper conducts a comprehensive review of three major Wi-Fi-based traffic detection applications in the field of ITS: target positioning, traffic parameter extraction, and travel mode identification. Among these, target positioning is one of the most widespread applications of Wi-Fi technology, which is also the basis for two other research aspects. Moreover, Wi-Fi-based positioning can be divided into two categories: ranging-based positioning and range-free one; in the field of transportation, it can also be categorized into pedestrian positioning and vehicle positioning based on travel mode. To further demonstrate the effectiveness of Wi-Fi-based ITS applications in practice, this study compares the various Wi-Fi-involved models and algorithms around the world, as well as provides some ideas and inspiration along with this direction.