A study of the ranging error for Parallel Double Sided-Two Way Ranging protocol

Abstract

Indicating its own position is an important ability for a mobile wireless node. As a matter of fact, it is a key enabler for future applications in fields as diverse as routing, security, logistics, entertainment and so on. This position can be computed in many different ways. In a protocol-based approach to positionning, the foundation of this localisation service is the ranging protocol. In this paper, we focus on Time of Flight (ToF)-based localisation. We investigate the performance in terms of ranging precision of our proposed protocol, Parallel Double Sided-Two Way Ranging. We define the mathematical model which allows prediction of the error behaviour and derive a dynamic correction tool. We then implement our solution using the Decaduino platform and verify our model's ability to identify the real distance. Using the correction method derived from the model in a real indoor environment, we were able to reduce the ranging error by at least 90%.