RTLSs and Distance Tracking Using Wi‐Fi, Bluetooth, and Cellular Technologies

This chapter focuses on some of the technical approaches that can be used for Office Social Distancing and Office Dynamic Cluster Monitoring and Analysis: it covers Wi‐Fi, Bluetooth® Low Energy, and also, briefly, cellular systems. In a Wi‐Fi‐based Real‐time location system (RTLS), the Wi‐Fi tags transmit advertisements into the field of fixed receivers, these receivers often being in the form of sensors, gateways, bridges, readers, or emitters. Wi‐Fi RTLSs provide real‐time locating of mobile devices by measuring the signal strength from the mobile device; specifically, a mobile device is tracked by continuously monitoring the signal strength as seen from various Wireless Access Points and reporting the signal strengths to a central Positioning Engine. Contact tracing work has been undertaken by MIT‐led Private Automated Contact Tracing project, pioneering the Bluetooth‐based privacy protocol at the heart of Apple and Google's solution.