Timing-Based Localization using Multipath Information

Andreas Bergström

Jan 2020 · Linköping Studies in Science and Technology. Licentiate Thesis Book 1867 · Linköping University Electronic Press

About this ebook

The measurements of radio signals are commonly used for localization purposes where the goal is to determine the spatial position of one or multiple objects. In realistic scenarios, any transmitted radio signal will be affected by the environment through reflections, diffraction at edges and corners etc. This causes a phenomenon known as multipath propagation, by which multiple instances of the transmitted signal having traversed different paths are heard by the receiver. These are known as Multi-Path Components (MPCs). The direct path (DP) between transmitter and receiver may also be occluded, causing what is referred to as non-Line-of-Sight (non-LOS) conditions. As a consequence of these effects, the estimated position of the object(s) may often be erroneous.

This thesis focuses on how to achieve better localization accuracy by accounting for the above-mentioned multipath propagation and non-LOS effects. It is proposed how to mitigate these in the context of positioning based on estimation of the DP between transmitter and receiver. It is also proposed how to constructively utilize the additional information about the environment which they implicitly provide. This is all done in a framework wherein a given signal model and a map of the surroundings are used to build a mathematical model of the radio environment, from which the resulting MPCs are estimated.

First, methods to mitigate the adverse effects of multipath propagation and non-LOS conditions for positioning based on estimation of the DP between transmitter and receiver are presented. This is initially done by using robust statistical measurement error models based on aggregated error statistics, where significant improvements are obtained without the need to provide detailed received signal information. The gains are seen to be even larger with up-to-date real-time information based on the estimated MPCs.

Second, the association of the estimated MPCs with the signal paths predicted by the environmental model is addressed. This leads to a combinatorial problem which is approached with tools from multi-target tracking theory. A rich radio environment in terms of many MPCs gives better localization accuracy but causes the problem size to grow large—something which can be remedied by excluding less probable paths. Simulations indicate that in such environments, the single best association hypothesis may be a reasonable approximation which avoids the calculation of a vast number of possible hypotheses. Accounting for erroneous measurements is crucial but may have drawbacks if no such are occurring.

Finally, theoretical localization performance bounds when utilizing all or a subset of the available MPCs are derived. A rich radio environment allows for good positioning accuracy using only a few transmitters/receivers, assuming that these are used in the localization process. In contrast, in a less rich environment where basically only the DP/LOS components are measurable, more transmitters/receivers and/or the combination of downlink and uplink measurements are required to achieve the same accuracy. The receiver’s capability of distinguishing between multiple MPCs arriving approximately at the same time also affects the localization accuracy.