New Approach for Indoor Positioning With Wi-Fi Using Quadratic Antenna Arrays

This letter provides a versatile solution for indoor positioning systems (IPS). Existing IPS designs are either accurate but complicated, or simple yet not accurate. All of the available solutions solely target positioning. In this letter, a novel idea is proposed as a proof of concept, which can be augmented in the IEEE 802.11 standards. The proposed concept offers adjustable positioning accuracy, along with the provision of networking. It is based on designing two steering quadratic phased antenna arrays providing two orthogonal footprints intersecting at the location of interest. With a distinct service set identifier (SSID) associated with each footprint, determining the position becomes straightforward. Some scenarios are possible for maintaining the communication aspects of the IEEE 802.11. Two quadratic microstrip antenna arrays and two feeding circuits with phase shifters are used to achieve the steer. The letter includes the RF design, simulation and analysis for further illustration.