Comparison between an RSSI- and an MCPD-Based BLE Indoor Localization System

Abstract

IPS is a crucial technology that enables medical staff and hospital management to accurately locate and track persons or assets inside medical buildings. Among other technologies, readily available BLE can be exploited to achieve an energy-efficient and low-cost solution. This work presents the design, implementation and comparison of a RSSI-based and a MCPD-based indoor localization system. The implementation is based on a lightweight wkNN algorithm that processes RSSI and MCPD distance data from connection-less BLE Beacons. The designed hardware and firmware are implemented around the state-of-the-art SoC for BLE, the nRF5340 from Nordic Semiconductor. Experimental evaluation with real-time data processing has been evaluated and presented in a 7.3 m × 8.9 m room with furniture and six beacon nodes. The experimental results on randomly chosen validation points within the room show an average error of only 0.50 m for the MCPD approach, whereas the RSSI approach achieved an error of 1.39 m.