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MoteTrack: A Robust, Decentralized Approach to RF-Based Location Tracking

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Location- and Context-Awareness (LoCA 2005)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 3479))

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Abstract

In this paper, we present a robust, decentralized approach to RF-based location tracking. Our system, called MoteTrack, is based on low-power radio transceivers coupled with a modest amount of computation and storage capabilities. MoteTrack does not rely upon any back-end server or network infrastructure: the location of each mobile node is computed using a received radio signal strength signature from numerous beacon nodes to a database of signatures that is replicated across the beacon nodes themselves. This design allows the system to function despite significant failures of the radio beacon infrastructure. In our deployment of MoteTrack, consisting of 20 beacon nodes distributed across our Computer Science building, we achieve a 50th percentile and 80th percentile location-tracking accuracy of 2 meters and 3 meters respectively. In addition, MoteTrack can tolerate the failure of up to 60% of the beacon nodes without severely degrading accuracy, making the system suitable for deployment in highly volatile conditions. We present a detailed analysis of MoteTrack’s performance under a wide range of conditions, including variance in the number of obstructions, beacon node failure, radio signature perturbations, receiver sensitivity, and beacon node density.

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© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Lorincz, K., Welsh, M. (2005). MoteTrack: A Robust, Decentralized Approach to RF-Based Location Tracking. In: Strang, T., Linnhoff-Popien, C. (eds) Location- and Context-Awareness. LoCA 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3479. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11426646_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11426646_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-25896-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-32042-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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