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Encyclopedia of GIS pp 566–571Cite as

Indoor Positioning with Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN)

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Synonyms

WLAN localization; WLAN location estimation; WLAN location determination; WLAN geolocation; WLAN location identification; WLAN location discovery; Radiolocation; WLAN location sensing; Position location; Location based services

Definition

WLAN positioning refers to the process of locating mobile network devices, such as laptops or personal digital assistants, using a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) infrastructure. Positioning is carried out by exploiting the dependency between the location of a mobile device (MD) and characteristics of signals transmitted between the MD and a set of WLAN access points (APs). These characteristics are generally Time of Arrival (ToA), Time Difference of Arrival (TDoA), Angle of Arrival (AoA), and Received Signal Strength (RSS). RSS is the feature of choice in WLAN positioning systems as it can be obtained directly from Network Interface Cards (NIC) that are available on most handheld computers. This allows the implementation of positioning...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Multimedia Laboratory, University of Toronto, Toronto, ONT, Canada

    A. Kushki, K.N. Plataniotis & A.N. Venetsanopoulos

Authors
  1. A. Kushki
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  2. K.N. Plataniotis
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  3. A.N. Venetsanopoulos
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Shashi Shekhar (McKnight Distinguished University Professor) (McKnight Distinguished University Professor)

  2. Management Science and Information Systems Department, Rutgers Business School Newark and New Brunswick Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, 07102, USA

    Hui Xiong (Assistant Professor) (Assistant Professor)

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© 2008 Springer-Verlag

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Kushki, A., Plataniotis, K., Venetsanopoulos, A. (2008). Indoor Positioning with Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN). In: Shekhar, S., Xiong, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of GIS. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35973-1_629

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