A Novel RF Ranging Method

TitleA Novel RF Ranging Method
Publication TypeConference Paper
Year of Publication2008
AuthorsLedeczi, A., P. Volgyesi, J. Sallai, and R. Thibodeaux
Conference NameSixth Workshop on Intelligent Solutions in Embedded Systems
Date Published07/2008
Conference LocationRegensburg, Germany
Abstract

Localization and tracking of wireless nodes have been active research areas in robotics, mobile ad-hoc networks, and wireless sensor networks. While several phenomena have been utilized for this purpose, RF signals have many advantages. Signal strength and time-of-flight are the two typical ways of extracting range information. Recently, radio interferometry was proposed to solve this problem using phase and/or Doppler shift measurements across severely resource-constrained devices. The former requires many measurements at multiple frequencies, while the latter needs motion to generate a usable signal. This paper introduces a novel ranging method based on a rotating antenna generating a Doppler shifted RF signal. The frequency change can be measured using the radio interferometric technique even on low-cost, resource constrained devices. This simple idea provides a surprising number of different ways for estimating range and location. The paper outlines these techniques and describes one of them in more detail with experimental and simulation results.

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