NLoS-VICINITY: A Non-Line of Sight Approach for Visible LIght Communication based INdoor PosITioning SYstem

In recent years with the rapid development of wireless communication technologies, positioning the person inside a building and providing various indoor location-based services have gradually penetrated in our daily life. Radio frequency (RF) based positioning techniques such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Bluetooth and Wi-Fi plays a major role in indoors as GPS is unreliable in interior spaces because of the attenuation faced by the satellite signals. But RF based solutions require additional devices to position the user which in-turn increases the infrastructure cost. Among the optical Wireless Communication (OWC) technologies, Visible Light Communication (VLC) can be an alternative to RF based positioning with little modification in existing lighting infrastructure. VLC combines illumination and communication thereby saving energy and cost. Unlike RF based positioning systems, VLC based positioning requires Line of Sight (LoS) to establish communication between transmitter and receiver which may create user discomfort. A novel user comfort enabled solution using Non-line of Sight approach has been developed to position the user in an indoor environment using VLC. This paper explains the challenges existing in LoS based positioning approach, our proposed system and presents the results of experimental analysis.