Title: A study of frequency interference and indoor location sensing with 802.11b and Bluetooth technologies

Authors: Abhishek P. Patil, Dan J. Kim, Lionel M. Ni

Addresses: Kiyon, Inc., 4225 Executive Sq. Ste 290, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. ' Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. ' Computer Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Abstract: Location-aware computing is regarded as a key feature of many future mobile applications. Recently there has been an increase in the use of commodity wireless technologies like 802.11 or Bluetooth for indoor location positioning. Since Bluetooth and Wi-Fi use the same frequency band, this paper presents the experimental results of the interference effect of one technology on the other. These results help in determining which of the two technologies is more suited for location sensing applications. The paper presents two techniques for location sensing using Bluetooth and concludes by suggesting some changes to the Bluetooth architecture to improve its capabilities for location positioning.

Keywords: Bluetooth; 802.11; location sensing; Wi-Fi; frequency interference; co-existence; indoor location positioning; mobile communications; wireless technologies.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMC.2006.010359

International Journal of Mobile Communications, 2006 Vol.4 No.6, pp.621 - 644

Published online: 17 Jul 2006 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article