Access point placement for fingerprint-based localization

A new approach has been developed to provide an overview about signal behavior in indoor environments using Cost-231 Multiwall Model (Cost-231 MWM) and Adaptive Data Rate (ADR) method. This approach used as a reference for access point (AP) placement for campus building. The Cost-231 MWM plays a role in estimating the measured power received by user (usually called as Received Signal Strength Indicator/RSSI) by considering the existence of obstacles around the transmitter (AP). We used Institut Asia Malang environments as the case study and gave some recommendations for AP placement: ten optimal placements for the first, third and fourth floor, also seven optimal placements for the second floor. These recommendations were based on the RSSI for good and excellent level signal (-50 dBm until -10dBm). This research also uses the Adaptive Data Rate (ADR) mechanism approach to reduce the amount of packet loss (kbps) resulting from obstacles that cause attenuation (-dB). With the Adaptive Data Rate mechanism, it means increasing the number of access points, the signal attenuation (-dB) occurs from the obstacles (Walls) that are penetrated by the Radio Frequency device and causes attenuation (-dB), the more Access points on the Multi-Wall, will allow communication and data transmitting stability.

This paper investigates the optimal access point (AP) placement (OAPP) in simultaneous broadcast system using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) for high data rate indoor wireless LAN. We aim to determine the best combination of multiple AP placements that minimizes average bit error rate (BER) of terminals when in put information including an indoor configuration, a number APs, and total transmission power is given a priori. Since OAPP is categorized as a hard combinatorial problem with many variables and constraints, we applied a nonlinear optimization scheme called uniform design simulated annealing (UDSA) to search for an approximate optimal solution and analyzed its performance in detail. The simulation results demonstrate that the UDSA algorithm has been successfully applied to OAPP and its effectiveness was also confirmed in comparison with very fast simulated annealing (VFSA) and local search (LS) algorithms.

This paper presents an AP (Access Point) placement framework considering indoor location-awareness and AP-based WLAN (Wireless Local Area Networks) performance enhancement. We first develop four objective functions that yield objective goals significant to the optimal AP placement in terms of location-awareness and network performance factors. Then, we develop three meta-heuristic algorithms based on simulated annealing, tabu search, and genetic algorithm. These algorithms generate a near-optimal solution for a given objective function. The performance of the AP placement framework presented in this paper is measured under the environments simulating indoor spaces, and numerical results obtained by experimental evaluation of proposed objective functions and algorithms confirm that the proposed AP placement framework can achieve a near-optimal solution to a given objective function.

Optimizing the Access Point (AP) deployment has a great role in wireless applications due to the need for providing an efficient communication with low deployment costs. Quality of Service (QoS), is a major significant parameter and objective to be considered along with AP placement as well the overall deployment cost. This study proposes and investigates a multi-level optimization algorithm called Wireless Optimization Algorithm for Indoor Placement (WOAIP) based on Binary Particle Swarm Optimization (BPSO). WOAIP aims to obtain the optimum AP multi-floor placement with effective coverage that makes it more capable of supporting QoS and cost-effectiveness. Five pairs (coverage, AP deployment) of weights, signal thresholds and received signal strength (RSS) measurements simulated using Wireless InSite (WI) software were considered in the test case study by comparing the results collected from WI with the present wireless simulated physical AP deployment of the targeted building - Computer Science Department at University of Baghdad. The performance evaluation of WOAIP shows an increase in terms of AP placement and optimization distinguished in order to increase the wireless coverage ratio to 92.93% compared to 58.5% of present AP coverage (or 24.5% coverage enhancement on average).

Information technology in the field of transmission that is currently developing, one of which is Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi devices provide user convenience in carrying out their activities. The quality of Wi-Fi network performance can be known by the reception of the signal received by the user. If the placement of an access point (AP) is done correctly, the network will be optimized. There are several propagation models in the room that can be used as a guideline in determining the placement of the AP, one slope model is a way to measure the average level of a building and only depends on the distance of the transmitter and receiver. This research was conducted in order to overcome the problem of Wi-Fi network area coverage at the Office of Communication and Information of the City of Palembang. This study conducted an experiment to change the layout of AP's placement, measure and calculate data in priority with the one slope model. The results of measurements and calculations carried out analysis and comparison in order to determine the results of the experiments conducted. The results of this study indicate that an attempt to change the AP layout with one slope model can overcome existing problems and get better Wi-Fi coverage area performance. In the calculation with the one slope model of the 2-trial access point placement results in a decrease and an increase in signal. The signal reduction occurred in experiment 1, whereas in experiment 2 (design 2) the signal increased by 1.46dBm.

The localization accuracy of a fingerprint-based localization system is dependent on several factors, one of which is the accuracy and efficiency at which the fingerprint database is clustered. Most highly efficient and accurate clustering algorithms have high time-dependent computational complexity (CC), which tends to limit their practical applicability. A technique that has yet to be explored is the sequential hybridization of multiple low-time CC clustering algorithms to produce a single moderate-time CC clustering algorithm with high localization accuracy. As a result, this paper proposes a clustering algorithm with a moderate time CC that is based on the sequential hybridization of the closest access point (CAP) and improved k-means clustering algorithms. The performance of the proposed sequential hybrid clustering algorithm is determined and compared to the modified affinity propagation clustering (m-APC), fuzzy c-mean (FCM), and 2-CAP algorithms presented in earlier research works using four experimentally generated and publicly available fingerprint databases. The performance metrics considered for the comparisons are the position root mean square error (RMSE) and clustering time based on big O notation. The simulation results show that the proposed sequential hybrid clustering algorithm has improved localization accuracy with position RMSEs of about 54%, 77%, and 52%, respectively, higher than those of the m-APC, FCM, and 2-CAP algorithms. In terms of clustering time, it is 99% and 79% faster than the m-APC and FCM algorithms, respectively, but 90% slower than the 2-CAP algorithm. The results have shown that it is possible to develop a clustering algorithm that has a moderate clustering time with very high localization accuracy through sequential hybridization of multiple clustering algorithms that have a low clustering time with poor localization accuracy. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2024-08-02-02 Full Text: PDF

Due to the wide deployment of wireless local area networks (WLANs) and the easy acquirement of received signal strength (RSS), indoor localization based on RSS has attracted considerable attention in both academia and industry. In this paper, we extract the scatter factor from RSS and then propose a novel indoor localization scheme based on location fingerprinting and curve fitting techniques. The scheme is set up in two phases. In the offline phase, we create a fingerprint and apply the curve fitting technique to construct fitted RSS-distance functions in LOS (Line Of Sight) and NLOS (None Line Of Sight) condition, respectively. In online positioning phase, the proposed optimized fingerprinting-based localization algorithm (OFPL) uses trilateration technique to assist the fingerprinting localization in choosing the proper location of the receiver. Through conducting field and extensive experiments, we can draw the conclusion that our proposed algorithm can obtain some improvement in localization accuracy compared with the classical fingerprinting-based localization.

Optimizing AP and Beacon Placement in WiFi and BLE hybrid localization

In wireless local area network (WLAN), signal coverage is obtained by proper placement of access points (APs). The impact of incorrect placement of APs is significant. If they are placed too far apart, they generate a coverage gap but if they are too close to each other, this leads to excessive co-channel interferences. In this paper, we describe a mathematical model we have developed to find the optimal number and location of APs. To solve the problem, we use an optimization algorithm developed at the University of Ballarat called discrete gradient algorithm. Results indicate that our model is able to solve optimal coverage problems for different numbers of users

With the fast-growing demand for mobile services, where to place the access points (APs) for providing uniformly and appropriately distributed signals in a wireless local area network (WLAN) becomes an important issue in the wireless network planning. Basically, AP placement will affect the coverage and strength of signals in a WLAN. The number and locations of APs in a WLAN are often decided on the basis of the trial-and-error method. Based on this method, the network planner first selects suitable locations to place APs through observation, and then keeps changing the locations to improve the signal strength based on the received signal. Such process is complicated, laborious and time-consuming. To overcome this problem, we investigate the back-propagation neural network (BPNN) algorithm to improve over the traditional trial-and-error method. Without increasing the number of APs, our approach only needs to adjust AP locations to overcome weak signal problems and thus increase the signal coverage for the Internet connection anywhere within the area. In our experiment, we established a WLAN on a C campus. Our experiments also indicate that placing APs according to the BPNN provided better signal coverage and met the students’ demands for connecting to the Internet from anywhere in the classroom.

It is usually possible to associate with more than one Access Point (AP) in IEEE 802.11 Wireless LANs. AP selection is a crucial issue because the performance achieved by a user heavily depends on the AP selected. A received signal strength (RSS)-based association mechanism is specified by the IEEE 802.11 standard. However, this does not consider the channel conditions and AP load, which leads to a low throughput and a low user transmission rate. An alternative to using the RSS is to exploit the airtime metric, which provides users with information on how busy the channel is, but the results of our simulations show that the airtime metric cannot indicate the exact status of the channel. In this paper, we present a new association framework using channel occupancy in order to provide users with exact channel status information of APs. Via the proposed scheme, users can compare the achievable throughput provided by each AP and select the best AP. We validate our proposed association method via simulation results, which show that the throughput improvement of the method is worthy of notice.

In fingerprint-based localization systems, clustering fingerprint databases is a proposed technique for improving localization accuracy while reducing localization time. Among various clustering algorithms, density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) stands out for its robustness to outliers and ability to accommodate fingerprint databases of various shapes. However, the clustering performance of the DBSCAN algorithm is heavily influenced by the type of similarity measure metric used, with most researchers using distance-based metrics. This paper aims to enhance DBSCAN clustering by using a pattern-based metric known as the context similarity coefficient (CSC) instead of distance-based metrics. The CSC metric examines received signal strength (RSS) measurement patterns that form fingerprint vectors and assesses both linear and non-linear relationships between these vectors to determine similarity. Four publicly available fingerprint databases were used to evaluate the clustering performance with silhouette scores as a performance metric. The performance of the DBSCAN algorithm with the CSC metric is determined and compared to Euclidean and Manhattan distances as similarity measure metrics. Simulation results indicate that achieving good clustering performance with the DBSCAN algorithm requires generating three or fewer clusters. The proposed CSC metric demonstrated the best clustering performance in two of four fingerprint databases and the second-best in another. However, computational complexity comparisons reveal that the CSC metric is highly computationally intensive and is suggested to be used on small to medium-sized fingerprint databases generated using an odd number of wireless APs deployed in a non-uniform or non-grid-like distribution.

This paper presents the use of a multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) for solving an access point placement problem in a wireless LAN. The aim is to maximize signal coverage over the interested area. The problem has been formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem where the decision variables are derived from the locations of the access points in the target area. The objectives consist of the number of access points and the average SNR over the whole area. The major advantage of using MOGA is that multiple optimal placement configurations for different numbers of access points can be obtained from a single run. A set of solutions provides more alternatives to the network designer. The simulation results indicate that the MOGA is capable of generating a placement result which is superior to that produced using standard placement techniques. In addition, the result assessment has been confirmed using statistical and analyzed data profile.

This manuscript presents a novel approach based on hybrid optimization techniques for planning Wireless Local Area Networks in two stages: i) network structure design for access point (AP) placement and channel assignment and ii) channel assignment enhancement. We consider two objective functions: network load balance and signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio; and three hard constraints: maximum AP capacities, client demand attendance, and minimum coverage levels. The proposed algorithm delivers an approximation of the efficient solution set, considering the two functions described above. The results from two scenarios were compared to the following four approaches: two multiobjective evolutionary algorithms, a well-known commercial tool, and a greedy technique. Finally, the solutions were subjected to sensitivity analysis to validate their robustness regarding user mobility and AP failures.

Precise localization of Wi-Fi Access Point (AP) is becoming increasingly important with the rise of diverse location-based services based on smartphone. In this article, we propose a new method for precise Wi-Fi AP localization using GPS information of smartphone. The idea is that the possible area of Wi-Fi AP location, called AP_Area, is first determined by measuring GPS information and the Received Signal Strength (RSS) of smartphones from Wi-Fi AP. As the number of measurement points from users' smartphones increases, the AP_Area can be successively narrowed down to the actual AP location. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can detect the Wi-Fi AP localization within 5 m (probability over than 80%).