From C-Band to mmWave-Band: Ray-Tracing-Assisted 5G-Based Indoor Positioning in Industrial Scenario

Private fifth-generation (5G) networks are increasingly becoming the industry’s choice of wireless communication networks for accelerating production processes. In this context, the role of 5G in providing precise positioning services in indoor industrial scenarios has also been actively discussed. However, the achievable indoor positioning accuracy depends on the radio propagation conditions persisting in the scenario. In this paper, using a Ray-Tracing (RT) engine, we investigate the radio environment in C-band (3.775 GHz) as well as the mmWave-band (26.85 GHz) for a detailed 3D geometric model of the dense clutter industrial production hall under different emulation setups and categorize the dominant Non-Line-of-Sight (NLoS) MultiPath Components (MPCs). We then evaluate the achievable Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDoA) based positioning accuracy in the C-band and the mmWave-band by computing the position of User Equipment (UE) using only first-arriving MPCs.