Accurate Distance Estimation Using Fuzzy based combined RSSI/LQI Values in an Indoor Scenario: Experimental Verification

Abstract

The received signal strength indicator (RSSI) and the link quality indicator (LQI) are metrics that are commonlyavailable in commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) sensor hardware. The former has been widely regarded as the mainsource for distance estimation and node localization. However, experimentally RSSI has been shown to behave inan inconsistent manner, even in ideal scenarios, and serve at best as bounds for distances. The latter is effectively ameasure of chip error rate, and can be used to identify higher quality transmissions, and the combination RSSI/LQIcan be expected to make more precise estimates with the tradeoff of increased delay and estimation cost. In thispaper, we describe our distance estimation system that uses these two metrics and test our hypothesis purelythrough experimental measurements using sensor nodes. Results indicate that such a combination of metrics canbe used to provide a tighter bound on the range of estimated distances. We then quantify the improvement indistance estimation by relying on these two metrics. Through a unique classification using fuzzy logic and TBM,we developed an algorithm that is capable of precise distance estimation within the range of 100cm to 400cm, onat least 80% of the times while reaching accuracy as high as 100%.