WBroximity: Mobile Participatory Sensing for WLAN- and Bluetooth-based Positioning
Key: ZCM+10-1
Author: Farid Zaid, Diego Costantini, Parag Mogre, Andreas Reinhardt, Johannes Schmitt, Ralf Steinmetz
Date: October 2010
Kind: In proceedings
Publisher: Omnipress
Book title: Proceedings of the 5th IEEE International Workshop on Practical Issues in Building Sensor Network Applications (SenseApp 2010)
Keywords: Participatory sensing, mobile devices, indoor positioning, WLAN and Bluetooth
Abstract: Recently, there has been much interest in positioning based on the widespreading WLAN technology, notably observed in the increasing number of hotspots and mobile devices equipped with WLAN interface. One technique to use WLAN for positioning is location fingerprinting, where WLAN networks in preselected sample locations are collected and used as fingerprints for those locations. However, to collect such fingerprints, existing services typically need to employ many skilled wardrivers who scan networks in the streets. This approach turns out to be very costly, especially when a large scale system coverage with acceptable positioning accuracy is required. Therefore, we propose WBroximity as a novel solution for the aforementioned concerns. With WBroximity, not only WLAN but also Bluetooth fingerprints are collected, therefore benefitting from the short range of Bluetooth to enable more precise positioning. Furthermore, such hybrid fingerprints are collected by using the paradigm of participatory sensing, thus cutting the extra costs needed to employ special personnel for this task, and allowing the system coverage to expand to wherever participants reach. In this paper, we present the technical details of realizing WBroximity as a location provider and its usage for collecting real fingerprint datasets. We evaluate the achieved accuracy in light of combining WLAN and Bluetooth, and the inherent aspects of participatory sensing, like number of participants and quality of participation. We give also an initial design and evaluation of a countermeasure to mitigate the effects of malicious participation.
View Full paper (PDF) | Download Full paper (PDF)

The documents distributed by this server have been provided by the contributing authors as a means to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work on a non-commercial basis. Copyright and all rights therein are maintained by the authors or by other copyright holders, not withstanding that they have offered their works here electronically. It is understood that all persons copying this information will adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. These works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.