2014 IEEE World Forum on Internet of Things (WF-IoT)
Indoor Positioning: a Key Enabling Technology for
IoT Applications
Davide Macagnano , Giuseppe Destino and Giuseppe Abreu†

Centre for Wireless Communications, P.O.Box 4500, FI-90014 University of Oulu, Finland
Email: {davide.macagnano, giuseppe.destino}@ee.oulu.fi
†
School of Engineering & Science, Jacobs University Bremen, Campus Ring 1, 28759 Bremen, Germany
Email: {g.abreu}@jacobs-university.de
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.
I. I NTRODUCTION
The purpose of this paper is to discuss some fundamentals
about localisation technologies and their application in the
emerging Internet of things (IoT) technology [1], [2]. We
discuss practical positioning algorithms, performance compar-
isons, and applications. Despite the complexity and the vast
literature on the topic, we aim to provide the reader with the
necessary references to acquire the knowledge on positioning
useful to understand more sophisticated material as well as to
understand the motivation behind requirements over the system
architecture per application scenarios.
With this regard we provide an overview of the choices
made for the largest FP-7 European project on IoT, namely
the BUTLER project [3]. IoT is an emerging technology
envisioned for the development of smart environments and
context aware services. One of the enabling technologies is
positioning, which can be simply understood as the estimation
problem of object and user locations from radio signals [4],
[5]. Nowadays radio technologies offer the great opportunity
to measure inter-node distance and bearing and, to perform
simultaneous angle-distance measurements by utilising het-
erogeneous radio interfaces. However, accurate positioning
is yet a challenge especially in indoors where the radio
channel is characterised by multipath signal propagation [6].
Fortunately, the state of the art on positioning technology [7],
978-1-4799-3459-1/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE 117
[8] already allows to overcome, up to some extends, some to
the impairments coming from the radio measurements.
Additionally, motivated by the fact that emerging context
aware-services require location and user “semantic informa-
tion”, we briefly review some concept on of semantic po-
sitioning [9], namely the problem of detecting user actions
and locations (user semantic information) based on prior
characterisation of the space and sensed data captured by an
IoT network. To this end, our objective is to promote this
notion and offer new research challenges to be investigated in
the future.
II. L OCALIZATION AND C ONTEXT AWARENESS
The upcoming IoT, with its pervasiness requires a funda-
mental shift in the classical vision of how a localisation system
is conceived. This is partially because of the importance that
context aware application has within the IoT world [10], [11].
For instance the pervasive localization system architecture en-
visioned in the Butler project [12] together with the application
of accurate and low complex signal processing solutions to the
positioning problem, e.g. [13]–[16] can provide the answer to
the needs of both industrial and academic world interested in
exploiting the potentials in the IoT world.
While discussion on the relevance of classical positioning
technologies, including both a historical evolutionary perspec-
tive and of current deployment cases can be easily found
in the literature [17], [18], more advanced solutions are still
subject of ongoing research [19]–[21]. In particular the impact
that location information can have on the design of current
and future IoT systems is still an open problem and is
currently investigated in ongoing project activities [2], [3].
Before proceeding, it is necessary to explore some of the
fundamental and conditioning factors that either define the
potential applications or result from the intended applications
of localization systems. For instance, important choices that
must be made are between:
- active versus passive systems
- localization of tracking applications
- centralized versus distributed solutions [23], [24]
considering that each solutions has its own pros and cons of
approaches With reference to the positioning algorithms, a
main distinction can be made between the classic maximal
likelihood (ML) solution [15], the Bayesian framework [25]
 2014 IEEE World Forum on Internet of Things (WF-IoT)
and the matrix completion alternative [26]. While matrix com-
pletion solutions rely on specific properties of the Euclidean
space [26], the ML uses statistical models of the observations
which is further extended to a system model1 within the
Bayesian framework.
In particular, one aspect that must be considered both
when designing the infrastructure as well as the kind of
measurements used to infer the target’s location is the so called
flip-ambiguity problem and how it can be handled [27].
A key role in the overall accuracy is also represented by
the types of data that can be obtained from different radios,
e.g. Bluetooth, Zigbee, UWB, Wi-Fi etc, and be used to infer
location information. Most commonly available measure are
connectivity, spatial correlation measures, angle information
and range-based observation. The accuracy of such measure-
ments depends on both radio technology [17], the processing
[28], [29] of the data and the enviroment [30].
For this reason it is important to assess the performance
of the selected solution for instance in presence of interfer-
ence and under both line-of-sight (LOS) and non-line-of-sigh
(NLOS) conditions [23], [31] and compare with analytical
tools, e.g. the CRLB bounds.
As discussed in [32], [33], in many scenario, due to
the heterogeneity of the devices, ergo the heterogeneity of
information available, considerable benefit can be achieved,
both theoretically and in practice by exploiting all information
available jointly.
Concluding an emerging application of positioning is repre-
sented by the semantic positing problem, namely the problem
of detecting user actions and locations (user semantic informa-
tion) based on prior characterisation of the space and sensed
data captured by an IoT network. To this end in [9] it is shown
how, using the recently tools coming from the compressed
sensing (CS) theory [34], it is possible to define the problem
of semantic positioning in a fully passive setting.
III. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank the European FP7 Project
BUTLER for sponsoring this research work.
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