A Novel Fingerprint Location Method Using Ray-Tracing

• Published in: GLOBECOM 2009 - 2009 IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference pp. 1 - 5
• Main Authors: Maher, P.S., Malaney, R.A.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.11.2009
• Subjects: Australia; Base stations; Earth; Fingerprint recognition; Hardware; Helium; Mobile handsets; Ray tracing; Spatial databases; Time measurement
• DOI: 10.1109/GLOCOM.2009.5425231
• ISBN: 9781424441488; 142444148X
• ISSN: 1930-529X

Mobile location estimation via the use of a spatially-dependent signal database is of growing importance. However, this location estimation method usually requires an a priori experimental measurement campaign. To overcome this drawback we propose here a new method of location estimation via the real-time creation of a virtual signal database. The virtual database is created on-demand by an optimized ray-tracing algorithm embedded on the user device. We explore how the creation of the virtual database can be optimized so as to determine the required location at the lowest time-to-fix. Our results demonstrate that in current 3G cellular mobile systems, and using current mobile phone hardware, sub-50 m accuracy can be achieved in less than a few seconds. Our work shows that accurate real-time location estimation via user embedded ray tracing is now viable and can lead to more accurate solutions in a range of circumstances.