Localization system for wireless networks

Positioning in wireless environments is crucial for the continuity of rich and mobile multimedia applications. A good position accuracy is particularly difficult to obtain in indoor or mixed indoor-outdoor scenarios. An efficient positioning system must accurately localize any mobile terminal/user in these demanding environments, being at the same time low-cost and easy to deploy. This paper proposes a real time tracking system for Wi-Fi networks based on trilateration calculated from RSSI values that are returned by the different wireless network interfaces. A fundamental characteristic of the system is the fact that it operates in passive mode, which means that there is no relationship between the positioning system and the terminal/user whose position is being calculated. The characteristics of the developed application are presented, together with the most important considerations that were taken into account during its development phase. The accuracy of the proposed system is evaluated by applying it to different scenarios and the results obtained prove that the application is able to achieve a good precision level, in spite of being a low cost solution that is very easy to deploy in practice.