On the accuracy of a cellular location system based on RSS measurements

We discuss the performance of a cellular location system based on received signal strength (RSS) measurements. Each mobile station (MS) collects RSS measurements of the downlink control channels transmitted by the surrounding base stations. It is assumed that there is one-to-one mapping between the RSS and the MS location. Hence, these measurements can be used to obtain the MS location. We examine the accuracy of this method by deriving the Cramer-Rao bound, the concentration ellipse, and the circular error probable (CEP) of this method. In addition, we obtain an analytic expression that predicts the point at which accuracy deviates significantly from the bound (the threshold point.) The accuracy of the method does not meet the FCC E911 requirement, but it is an attractive solution for less-demanding location-based services.