User's Area (Zone) Estimation Method using BLE Beacons for IoT Service in Subway Station Environment

A novel location estimation method using IoT (Internet of Things) sensors to detect classified service areas in subway station is presented in this paper. By using RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) values of BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) Beacons, virtual areas are divided electromagnetically according to specific service facilities for IoT service. The virtual service area is called Zone. MLP (Multi-Layer Perceptron) algorithm applies to recognize the assigned Zone with the received RSSIs from multiple IoT sensors constructed in a real subway station. For verification of the proposed method, an experimental test is carried out in a real subway station environment. For recognition of 2 divided Zones, 10 sensors are used with their different transmitting power levels. From the test results, it is noticed that zone recognition accuracy obtains 78.1% experimentally for a real subway station environment.