A model-based approach for WLAN localization in indoor parking areas

Wireless location of a User Equipment (UE) has received growing attention in recent years. The first step for the design of a wireless location system consists in choosing the system architecture and the localization algorithm that match the requirements of the working scenario. In this paper the area of interest is represented by an indoor parking lot, in which the variable occupancy of motor vehicles alters the electromagnetic propagation and causes large errors in vehicle location estimation. The proposed strategy to deal with this problem is the use of a server-based architecture, that ensures security and scalability and accounts for the system state in terms of number and positions of already present vehicles. This concept of state is shown to be useful to design suitable algorithms, based on simplified electromagnetic models, to improve the localization performance.