New Wireless Beacon Deployment for Maximum Coverage Efficiency in Indoor Localization

In large-scale deployments of indoor positioning systems (IPSs), a major practical challenge is determining the placement of a minimal number of beacons to ensure full localization coverage. In this letter, we propose a theoretically optimal design for the deployment of wireless sensors in localization applications. First, we mathematically derive the maximum coverage efficiency of
$\frac{2}{\pi \sqrt{3}} \approx 0.37$
for the unique localization of any arbitrary region, where localization of a single point can be achieved by using two or three fixed-range beacons. We then propose a novel beacon placement structure according to the kagome lattice that achieves this maximum efficiency. Compared with recent existing methods, our proposed kagome beacon placement significantly reduces the required number of beacons by more than 15% when applied to randomly generated regions. Importantly, it does so while incurring a substantially lower computational complexity. The results of this letter are promising for pico- and femto-cell deployments with applications in localization of advanced industrial automation, health monitoring in complex infrastructure, and adaptive urban development in smart cities.