Measuring the distance between wireless sensor nodes with standard hardware

Abstract

Several ways to estimate the position of a Wireless-Sensor-Network (WSN) node have been discussed in the past years. Unlike in outdoor solutions where the Global Positioning System (GPS) could be used in most applications, a general solution for indoor usage has not been found. The few existing indoor localization solutions on the market are highly specialized and rely on infrastructure or on very expensive special designed hardware. Both - infrastructure and expensive hardware - do not fit well into most scenarios where WSNs are commonly used because of the adhoc characteristics and the large amount of nodes of such installations. In this paper we present a solution to get a precise estimation of the distance between two nodes without the needs for special purpose chips or a redesign of already existent nodes. We use radio runtime measurement to calculate the distance between nodes and present algorithms to refine the measurements. A comparison with a professional solution which is available on the market is also presented.