A WLAN-based location system for indoor parking areas

One of the most important values deriving from WLAN (Wireless Local Access Network) technology is the possibility to provide a huge amount of mobility services based on a very cheap infrastructure. In this paper we propose a WLAN-based network architecture implementing an advanced location-determination service. The testing area is an indoor parking lot, and the location infrastructure includes several access points appropriately located inside the lot, some user equipments able to interact with APs, and a Location Server able to provide an estimate of a vehicle position using specific algorithms based on a fingerprinting (FP) technique. The fingerprinting method is very useful for operational conditions within an indoor environment, which are considered quite problematic from an electromagnetic point of view.