Indoor positioning: A key enabling technology for IoT applications

Abstract

Motivated by the recent advances on internet of things (IoT) and the importance that location information has on many application scenarios, this article offers references to theoretical and localization-algorithmic tools that can be utilised in connection with IoT. We develop this discussion from basic to sophisticated localization techniques covering also some less-intuitive notions of localization, e.g. semantic positioning, for which we provide a novel solution which overcome the problem of privacy. We analyze the localization problem from a mathematical perspective; reviewing the most common and best-performing class of localization methods based on optimization and algebraic approaches and we discuss benefits of location information in a wireless system. In this regard we discuss few concrete applications scenario currently under investigation in the largest EU project on IoT, namely the FP-7 Butler project, how location information is one of the key enabling technology in the IoT. In addition to the theoretical aspect, this article provides references to the pervasive localization system architecture using the smart sensors developed within the Butler project.