Satellite Localization of IoT Devices Using Signal Strength and Doppler Measurements

Determining the location of wireless devices is vital in many applications. However, global navigation satellite system technologies require a dedicated hardware module installed in the device, imposing additional power and cost constraints. This letter presents a framework to passively localize ground wireless devices by a constellation of satellites using only the signal strength and Doppler measurements. We derive the likelihood of the measurements and then compare two methods: first by applying a stochastic optimizer, namely simulated annealing, and second using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm to draw a sample distribution of the estimated location and the device Equivalent Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP). Simulation results under realistic Internet-of-things scenarios show that reliable IoT device localization can be achieved using several satellites.