Accurate radio distance estimation by phase measurements with multiple frequencies

Indoor localization is important for logistics, industrial applications and for several consumer applications. In the area of logistics, e.g. warehouses, localization accuracy within a few meters is desired. Available radio based systems within that accuracy are neither cost effective nor easy to deploy. Distance estimation together with triangulation are one of the standard solutions for localization. In this work, we propose phase measurements between two wireless sensor nodes for distance estimation. We introduce a mathematical model to estimate distances from phase measurements with multiple frequencies and provide a systematic analysis of possible sources of errors. Additionally, we derive requirements, e.g. resolution for a phase measurement unit to achieve a given accuracy. We present measurements for evaluation to confirm our theoretical results. Our implementation comprises a low cost IEEE 802.15.4 hardware with a built-in phase measurement unit. We implement the developed algorithm for distance estimation in our wireless sensor networks and use two wireless sensor nodes to perform a phase measurement. The contributions of the paper comprise a new model for phase measurements to estimate distances and a preliminary evaluation with our hardware.