3D Location Estimation in Urban Cellular Systems Using the Overhearing Model

Estimating the location of mobile terminals in dense urban environments is still an open issue. This paper proposes a new radiolocation technique which is robust to severe Non-Line-of-Sight and multipath propagation conditions that are typical of urban microcellular and picocellular systems. In the proposed technique, three-dimensional location estimation can be achieved by counting the number of overheard beacon packets that power-controlled mobile terminals transmit periodically. The overhearing model in 3D space is also introduced to model the correlation between the position and the number of overheard packets. Simulation results are used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed technique.