Hybrid Data Fusion and Cooperative Schemes for Wireless Positioning

The wireless hybrid enhanced mobile radio estimators (WHERE) consortium researches radio positioning techniques to improve various aspects of communications systems. In order to provide the benefits of position information available to communications systems, hybrid data fusion (HDF) techniques estimate reliable position information. Within this paper, we first present the scenarios and radio technologies evaluated by the WHERE consortium for wireless positioning. We compare conventional HDF approaches with two novel approaches developed within the framework of WHERE. Yet, HDF may still provide insufficient localization accuracy and reliability. Hence, we will research and develop new cooperative positioning algorithms, which exploit the available communications links among mobile terminals of heterogeneous wireless networks, to further enhance the positioning accuracy and reliability.