Fingerprinting based localization in heterogeneous wireless networks

•RSS fingerprints can be a feasible solution for indoor positioning in HWNs.•New method based on searching the area which best matches the test RSS fingerprint.•New model of cooperative positioning by combining the estimates obtained in HWN.•Performance evaluated in realistic HWN and significant improvements demonstrated.

Due to advances in mobile technology, context-aware applications are continuously growing in importance; therefore, the ability of developing accurate and reliable localization system has become a necessity. Since methods based on received signal strength (RSS) fingerprints are today widely adopted and most of mobile devices comprise different wireless access technologies, it is feasible to use fingerprints from heterogeneous wireless networks (HWN) for localization purposes. In this paper we propose a novel approach for localization based on searching the area which best matches the test RSS fingerprint. We evaluated the proposed method in realistic environment in WLAN, GSM and UMTS networks, and compared it with other commonly used approaches. The results showed that our method compares favorably to others, and practically always achieves the lowest localization error. We also extended the proposed system using a model of cooperative positioning by combining the estimates obtained in the heterogeneous wireless network. The obtained results showed that with combined location estimate, significant improvement over any single system was achieved.