Using area-based presentations and metrics for localization systems in wireless LANs

We show the utility of WLAN localization using areas and volumes as the fundamental localization unit. We demonstrate that area-based algorithms have a critical advantage over point-based approaches because they are better able to describe localization uncertainty, which is a common theme across WLAN based localization systems. Next, we present two novel area-based algorithms. To evaluate area-based approaches, we introduce several new localization performance metrics. We then evaluate the two algorithms using our metrics with data collected from our local WLAN. Finally, we compare our area-based algorithms against traditional point-based approaches. We find that using areas improves the ability of the localization system to give users meaningful alternatives in the face of position uncertainty.