LOCATION OF WIRELESS NODES USING SIGNAL STRENGTH WEIGHTING METRIC

摘要

Methods, apparatuses, and systems directed to a wireless node locationmechanism that uses a signal strength weighting metric to improve the accuracyof estimating the location of a wireless node based on signals detected amonga plurality of radio transceivers. In certain implementations, the wirelessnode location mechanism further incorporates a differential signal strengthmetric to reduce the errors caused by variations in wireless node transmitpower, errors in signal strength detection, and/or direction-dependent pathloss. As opposed to using the absolute signal strength or power of an RFsignal transmitted by a wireless node, implementations of the presentinvention compare the differences between signal strength values detected atvarious pairs of radio receivers to corresponding differences characterized ina model of the RF environment. One implementation of the invention searchesfor the locations in the model between each pair of radio receivers wheretheir signal strength is different by an observed amount.