Indoor positioning (indoor locaTIon) may be widely used like a GPS map. To achieve that day, six suppliers have certified at least eight to support a new Wi-Fi positioning (Wi-Fi LocaTIon) service. The chip; at the same time another company has released new software that supports similar services through 4G cellular networks.
The goal of both new technologies is to provide an alternative solution beyond the current Bluetooth and ultrawideband beacons; and whatever technology camp is hoping to achieve a market that is expected to be large- ─ ABI Research estimates that by the year 2021, 50 million Bluetooth beacons will be shipped globally, with retail as the mainstream market; then the overall immediate addressing service and asset tracking market will total $15 billion.
The Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA), which just announced a new solution, is more optimistic about the market outlook; the alliance expects that by 2020, the mobile locaTIon-based services market will reach $35 billion, and their Wi- The Fi positioning solution will reach $2.5 billion in revenue by then.
Regardless of the size of the market and when the market takes off, engineers are already working hard; WFA is certified by Broadcom, Intel, Marvell, Mediatek, Qualcomm and Ray. The so-called Wi-Fi positioning chip of six manufacturers such as Realtek.
This scheme can accurately measure the signal timing (signal TImestamps) in nanosecond level to provide positioning data, usually within one meter, using the fine timing measurement of IEEE 802.11-2016 ( Fine Timing Measurement) communication protocol.
Another Wi-Fi standard, 802.11az, is being set up to provide centumeric accuracy within a few years; its goal is to use angle-related information from signals received with a new generation of multi-antenna systems. However, the draft standard that is suitable for building chips is not expected to be ready until next year.
Wi-Fi positioning uses a round-trip time stamp synchronized to the same frequency (source: WFA)
The first generation of Wi-Fi positioning technology will not be available until next year. Currently, there is no pick-up store or smart phone with updated chips. The mobile operating system also needs to build software to make application developers fully Play its function.
Kevin Robinson, vice president of marketing at WFA, said that in the long run, this kind of Wi-Fi solution should help to make indoor positioning services more widely used and cheaper. In the end, all new access points and smart phones will start positioning. The function can achieve more consistent accuracy, and the range is wider than the Bluetooth and ultra-wideband solutions that require exclusive target.
In addition, Wi-Fi support provides actual addresses and other data that can be used for emergency ambulances, etc.; and the protection of location data is also the technology currently used to protect all Wi-Fi data. This kind of Wi-Fi service also has its limitations. The best positioning result will appear in the situation where the system can utilize multiple access points. Therefore, in the home, there is only one access point, and the accuracy may be reduce.
Planning for sub-meter services that will emerge in next-generation solutions may rely in part on 60Hz Wi-Fi broadband technology or new technologies that engineers are still inventing. At the same time, Bluetooth beacons have not stagnated - Google has launched a plan based on an open communication protocol.
LTE also pushes location servicesA company called PoLTE said that there is a better positioning solution than Wi-Fi. The white paper written by the company and Intel pointed out that its accuracy is currently 2~6 meters; PoLTE will be in the world of the year. The Mobile Communications Conference (MWC 2017) demonstrated its indoor "position over LTE" algorithm and positioning software using GPS and existing LTE hardware and security technologies.
PoLTE claims that they are using radar positioning technology to convert reference signal data embedded in LTE transmissions into accurate location data; the company says its patented algorithm can provide up to ten times higher resolution/positioning accuracy than older solutions .
In a press release, PoLTE CEO Russ Markhovsky said: "Mobile network operators or enterprises no longer need to try to splicing Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or GPS technology;" and the company's chief technology officer John Dow said that consumer devices do need The company's firmware, service providers need to operate a software-based location server.
Dow said: "We expect to conduct multiple field tests, including with first-tier carriers, leading manufacturers of LTE chips, global handset and IoT device manufacturers, etc., with the goal of achieving general availability by 2018."
He said that Wi-Fi lacks the penetration of cellular communication, and high penetration allows LTE positioning to be more accurate, especially for buildings with their own small base stations: "in an office building In the test, we provided an accuracy of 3 meters in 95% of the time and an accuracy of about 1 meter in 68% of the time; the site has LTE coverage provided by the LTE network in the building.
In the test of PoLTE and Intel, LTE technology shows the accuracy of 2~6 meters (Source: Intel, PoLTE)
The Wi-Fi and LTE competition positioning service market is one of the cases in which the two network technologies become more and more fierce. The use cases of indoor positioning are gradually widening, and familiar privacy disputes are also derived. For example, an engineer mentioned that using physical location data to get accurate location data can get more information about the behavior of live buyers, just like Amazon does in online stores.
Compilation: Judith Cheng
(Reference text: Wi-Fi, LTE Spar over Location, by Rick Merritt)
Easy Electronic Technology Co.,Ltd , https://www.nbpcelectronicgroup.com