Performance stability of software ToA-based ranging in WLAN

Abstract

This article proposes a set of strategies to improve the performance stability and reliability of purely software ToA-based ranging with off-the-shelf WLAN equipment. Taking as starting point the core design lines proposed in (1), where timing measurements were taken at OS level using the CPU clock of the client device, we optimize the OS configuration and the capture of the time-stamps. Results obtained with a prototype demonstrate that the proposed enhancements improve the performance stability by a factor four. The interest in this kind of ranging methods is because they enable cost-effective and accurate positioning in GNSSless environments.