Real Time Locating System for Wireless Networks using IEEE 802.15.4 Radio

Real time locating systems (RTLS) determine and track the location of assets and person using active tags. Two or more readers can estimate the tag´s range from each reader and determine its location. In order to determine tag´s location, there are several methods. This paper presents a real time locating system which is based on time difference of arrival(TDOA) of a signal, for wireless networks using IEEE 802.15.4 radio. In order to measure the time that a signal arrives at, exact time measurement is crucial. This paper proposes a multi-phase radio method to provide exact time measurement. In addition, to calculate the time difference, readers in the network should be synchronized with themselves. We also present a precision time synchronization protocol. This paper includes the performance evaluation. The performance shows that our RTLS has accuracy of within 3 meters.