Received-Signal-Strength Threshold Optimization Using Gaussian Processes

There is a big trend nowadays to use event-triggered proximity report for indoor positioning. This paper presents a generic received-signal-strength (RSS) threshold optimization framework for generating informative proximity reports. The proposed framework contains five main building blocks, namely the deployment information, RSS model, positioning metric selection, optimization process and management. Among others, we focus on Gaussian process regression (GPR)-based RSS models and positioning metric computation. The optimal RSS threshold is found through minimizing the best achievable localization root-mean-square-error formulated with the aid of fundamental lower bound analysis. Computational complexity is compared for different RSS models and different fundamental lower bounds. The resulting optimal RSS threshold enables enhanced performance of new fashioned low-cost and low-complex proximity report-based positioning algorithms. The proposed framework is validated with real measurements collected in an office area where bluetooth-low-energy (BLE) beacons are deployed.