FTM-ns3: WiFi Fine Time Measurements for NS3

Wireless networks having location-awareness will foster new classes of applications. Here, a precise range estimation is of critical importance. The Fine Time Measurement (FTM) protocol introduced in IEEE 802.11-2016 uses radio frequency based time-of-flight estimation, which enables precise indoor ranging and positioning. This paper presents FTM-ns3, an extension for the widely used ns3 network simulator to support the 802.11 FTM protocol. Using results from experiments with real FTM hardware, we developed error models to be used in simulations. These new error models allow to analyze the impact of channel bandwidth and Line of Sight (LOS) with multipath channel propagation on the performance of FTM-based localization schemes. First results from own simulations show that even a simple localization scheme is highly affected by ranging inaccuracy introduced due to multipath propagation in typical indoor environments even so a LOS component exists. Our extension is provided to the community as open source.