Enhancing Accuracy Performance of Bluetooth Positioning

Huge popularity of mobile devices and Internet open new application field of wireless positioning and navigation systems, and this integration also brings new research issues. Currently the positioning and navigation systems are mostly based on satellite positioning systems, such as GPS. One serious drawback of these satellite based positioning and navigation systems is that they can only operate in outdoor environment. There are several approaches for wireless positioning, e.g. cell ID, DOA (directions of arrivals) or signal strength measurements, but these approaches can not meet requirements of wireless positioning, including latency, availability and accuracy. In this paper, we propose a new approach for Bluetooth positioning, which is based on the time offset acquisition of signals propagating over radio channel, and the forward-backward ranging. Through simulations and experiments, it shows that the new Bluetooth ranging approach could give high ranging accuracy with modest modifications of current Bluetooth technology.