Relative RSS-based GSM localization technique

Context-aware applications have been gaining huge interest in the last few years. With cell phones becoming ubiquitous computing devices, cell phone localization has become an important research problem, and numerous localization solutions have been proposed. Database Correlation Method (DCM) is a positioning technology that based on a premeasured database of a location dependent variable such as Received Signal Strength (RSS) or Link Quality Identifier. DCM has shown superior in terms of accuracy. Absolute RSS values received from base station change with time, but the relative RSS values which refer to the relations of the RSS values between different base stations are more stable. This study has proposed and implemented a robust technique for both positioning and traffic estimation using Relative Received Signal Strength (RRSS) of GSM. The study has been tested and analysed in Egypt roads using realistic data and Android smart phones. The performance evaluation showed good results. Mean positioning accuracy was about 29 m in urban areas and velocity estimation was about 1 km/h in rural areas.