Projecte ofert
Títol: Testbed for Performance Evaluation of the Passive TDOA Algorithm Using COTS Wi-Fi Devices
Per assignar-vos el projecte us heu de dirigir al director/a perquè us l'assigni.
Director/a: ZOLA, ENRICA VALERIA
Departament: ENTEL
Títol: Testbed for Performance Evaluation of the Passive TDOA Algorithm Using COTS Wi-Fi Devices
Data inici oferta: 28-03-2025 Data finalització oferta: 28-11-2025
Estudis d'assignació del projecte:
DG ENG SISTE/TELEMÀT
| Tipus: Individual | |
| Lloc de realització: EETAC | |
| Segon director/a (UPC): MARTIN ESCALONA, ISRAEL | |
| Paraules clau: | |
| Testbed, passive-TDOA localization algorithm, COST Wi-Fi devices, IEEE 802.11mc, FTM | |
| Descripció del contingut i pla d'activitats: | |
| Nowadays, indoor positioning remains an open challenge. The primary reason, though not the only one, is that achieving accurate indoor location measurements requires a high level of precision, typically with positioning errors averaging between 1 and 2 meters. While technologies like Ultra-Wideband (UWB) can achieve centimeter-level accuracy, they often require custom network infrastructure and specialized user equipment, which makes them costly and difficult to deploy.
Significant efforts have been made to repurpose existing communication networks for localization. However, these approaches generally suffer from larger positioning errors, often well beyond the desired 2-meter threshold. Recently, a novel localization technique for Wi-Fi networks called Passive Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) has been introduced. This method leverages the concept of two-way Time of Arrival (TOA) to calculate the signal's time of flight, but it does so passively-without injecting additional location-related traffic into the network. While simulations of this technique have shown promising performance, its implementation in the Linux Wi-Fi protocol stack (specifically in the SoftMAC module) has yielded less favourable results due to the latency introduced by traversing the Wi-Fi stack. A preliminary proof of concept was developed, which enabled a Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Wi-Fi device to passively overhear RTS/CTS frames exchanged in IEEE 802.11 networks and capture their timestamps. However, this implementation required modifying the firmware controlling the Wi-Fi chipset, limiting its compatibility to only a few COTS devices operating in the 2.4 GHz band-an approach that is suboptimal for accurate distance estimation. This project aims to address these limitations by exploring the possibility of processing Wi-Fi frames generated during the distance estimation process using any COTS device that supports IEEE 802.11mc technology. The ultimate goal is to build a testbed to evaluate the performance and security of this technology. Objectives: The goal of this project is to evaluate the feasibility of using COTS devices, such as ESP32 Wi-Fi-enabled devices, to implement the passive TDOA algorithm. The primary outcome of the project is expected to be the development of a demonstrator, which will serve as a foundation for further studies on the performance and security evaluation of the aforementioned protocol. |
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| Orientació a l'estudiant: | |
| Proficiency in Python programming.
Experience with the Arduino development platform. Understanding of Wi-Fi 802.11 protocols. |
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| Requereix activitats hardware: No | |
| Requereix activitats software: Sí Sistema operatiu: Disc (Gb): | |
| Horari d'atenció a estudiants per a l'assignació de projecte: Send me an email (enrica.zola@upc.edu) |
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