Evaluation of WiFi Technologies for Indoor Positioning Applications
For the majority of applications that use positioning information, solutions from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) can easily meet the accuracy, availability and reliability required. This assumes that the GNSS receiver is always operating in an environment that offers clear sky visibility. However, for a growing number of location based services and system, operation in indoor environments is essential. Alternative positioning technologies such as WiFi, are gaining popularity due to the ever increasing availability of access points installed for computer networking that can be used simultaneously as an infrastructure for positioning at no additional cost. This paper investigates the potential of WiFi positioning to provide solutions in indoor environments as well as seamless indoor/outdoor positioning. It presents the practical results generated from a case study undertaken to benchmark robust WiFi positioning algorithms developed in Australia against a commercially available system. Details of the different techniques used in WiFi positioning, the Australian algorithm developed, tests conducted, and a summary of WiFi positioning performance will be presented in this paper.