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Projecte llegit

Títol: Analysis and Simulation of the Ranging Error in the IEEE 802.11az Next Generation Positioning Capability

Estudiants que han llegit aquest projecte:

Director/a: ZOLA, ENRICA VALERIA

Departament: ENTEL

Títol: Analysis and Simulation of the Ranging Error in the IEEE 802.11az Next Generation Positioning Capability

Data inici oferta: 04-09-2025     Data finalització oferta: 04-04-2026


Estudis d'assignació del projecte:
    MU AI4CI
    MU EM CODAS 1
    MU EM CODAS 2
    MU MASTEAM 2015
Tipus: Individual
 
Lloc de realització: EETAC
 
Segon director/a (UPC): MARTIN ESCALONA, ISRAEL
 
Paraules clau:
IEEE 802.11az, indoor positioning, Wi-Fi RTT, network simulation, ns-3
 
Descripció del contingut i pla d'activitats:
The 802.11az standard (aka Next Generation Positioning (NGP)) builds upon the Fine Timing Measurement (FTM) protocol introduced in IEEE 802.11-2016, enabling Wi-Fi devices to measure the precise round-trip time (RTT) for ranging and positioning. While FTM is currently available in Android 9 (and later) devices - thus enabling the possibility of real testing in Current Off The Shelf (COTS) devices-, it will still take time before the 802.11az can be tested. While some Android 12 (or later) devices can already implement NGP, yet, as of today, there are no NGP access points (APs) available in the market.

NGP enables a Wi-Fi STA to identify its position relative to multiple APs by exchanging high-efficiency (HE) ranging null data packets (NDPs) and recording their time of departure (ToD) or time of arrival (ToA) at the sending or receiving device, respectively. The ToA is estimated using MUSIC super-resolution [1].

This Master Thesis will use the Matlab implementation [2] of NGP, which allows the user to derive the ranging error based on several physical parameters (e.g. SNR, Channel bandwidth, number of transmit/receive antennas, number of space-time streams, etc.).
First, the ranging error model in 802.11az must be analysed and then it must be implemented in the NS-3 network simulator, which currently lacks of a direct, built-in support for IEEE 802.11az.

The main goal is to simulate and evaluate the performance of 802.11az NGP.

Objectives:
1) Derive a ranging error model from the Matlab implementation of 802.11az
2) Implement the ranging error in NS-3
3) Assess a thorough validation of the implementation
4) Perform a thorough assessment of the 802.11az positioning performance


REF:
[1] Xinrong Li and K. Pahlavan, "Super-resolution TOA estimation with diversity for indoor geolocation," in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 224-234, Jan. 2004, doi: 10.1109/TWC.2003.819035
[2] 802.11az Positioning Using Super-Resolution Time of Arrival Estimation, https://es.mathworks.com/help/wlan/ug/802-11az-indoor-positioning-using-super-resolution-time-of-arrival-estimation.html
[3] NS-3 Network Simulator, https://www.nsnam.org/
 
Overview (resum en anglès):
Indoor positioning presents a fundamentally challenging problem despite its apparent simplicity. Unlike outdoor navigation, where Global Positioning System (GPS) provides reliable localization, indoor environments significantly degrade signal quality.
Radio signals are reflected by walls, attenuated by construction materials such as concrete, and distorted by multi path propagation effects, rendering the timing measurements required for accurate ranging unreliable. Wi-Fi, which is already deployed virtually everywhere, offers an attractive alternative. IEEE 802.11az, known as Next Generation Positioning (NGP), is the latest Wi-Fi standard specifically designed to address this problem, targeting sub-meter ranging accuracy through wider channel bandwidths, Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna processing, and a super-resolution Time of Arrival (ToA) estimation algorithm called Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC).
This thesis investigates 802.11az ranging performance through three interconnected contributions. First, using the MATLAB based IEEE 802.11az ranging framework provided by the MathWorks, a simulation study is conducted to evaluate the impact of key PHY parameters including channel bandwidth, antenna configuration, High Efficiency Long Training Field (HE-LTF) repetitions, and Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), on ranging accuracy. Second, the MATLAB simulation is translated to standalone C++ using MATLAB Coder and integrated into the ns-3 network simulator. For all scenarios considered in this work, the output distributions produced by the MATLAB and generated C++ implementations are compared using the two-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The results indicate no statistically differences between the observed ranging-error distributions. Third, a ns-3 simulation framework integrates the validated
C++ PHY module with ns-3, enabling network-level ranging studies with configurable Access Point (AP) positions and mobile station tracking.
The key result is that the proposed ns-3 framework successfully integrates a validated IEEE 802.11az ranging model into an event-driven network simulation environment, enabling the study of ranging performance under different network topologies, mobility conditions, and PHY-layer parameter configurations.

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