Cooperative Localization

Abstract

The main idea of the project is to exploit cooperation between mobile phones to retrieve their geographical position without using GPS.

In a non-cooperative scenario, a Mobile Phone can retrieve the Base Station ID and by knowing the Base Station’s geographical position and the signal strength, it is possible to define a circular crown around the BS where it’s more likely to find the Mobile Phone (see Figure 1).  

                                      Figure 1

Let us suppose to have a scenario as shown in Figure 2, where three Mobile Phones are in the same Bluetooth range and they are connected to Base Stations of different network operators. They can exchange the data about the Base Station IDs and the signal strength. By doing that, the area where it’s more likely to find the MP is smaller than the one of the non-cooperative case.

                                  Figure 2

 The project is divided into three Work Packages:

 WP1. Measurements

In this WP, we will use 3-4 Nokia N95 with SIM cards of different operators to collect the following data:

- BS-ID

- signal strength

- GPS position

WP2. Data processing

After processing the data, results will be shown by using the APIs of Google Map

WP3. Localization algorithm

In this WP, the algorithm for localization will be implemented and tested