For constructing sets of suitable artificial reference data, a realistic modeling of receive signal is needed. To accurately model receive signals for arbitrary placed sensor nodes in a spatial geometry, following eq. (
4), we need the original transmit signal
and the modeled CIR
, including estimated transmission delays
and amplitudes
for all signal echoes. First, we introduce a three-dimensional geometric model to calculate all signal echoes including individual
in a multipath scenario in
Section 3.3.1. Then, we extend our model with estimates for the complex-valued amplitudes
in
Section 3.3.2. In the end, we show how the modeled receive signal is formed, see
Section 3.3.3.
3.3.1. Three-Dimensional Multipath Model for Transmission Delay Estimation
To estimate the echoes’ transmission delays, we designed a multipath propagation model for arbitrary three-dimensional spatial geometries.
Figure 5 depicts the estimated signal echo paths for a given set of tag and anchor nodes on a floor.
General Overview: The three-dimensional spatial geometry contains multiple reflective surfaces (e.g., walls, ground, ceiling, furniture and obstacles). We model the multipath propagation for each combination of anchor and tag position inside the geometry. With it, We calculate the respective path lengths and the reflection at the surfaces. Therefore we assumed that the materials of the surfaces have no noticeable influence on the transmission delay of the echoes.
The following description outlines the modeling for paths with exact
reflection illustrated in
Figure 6, before the model is expanded to signal echoes with more reflections at the end of this section.
Note: In the following, we distinguish between the infinite
plane and the finite
surface inside the plane.
Step 1. Determining the position of virtual anchors: For modeling the signal echo paths, we determine the position of so-called virtual anchors, a reference point in the spatial geometry, to calculate the reflection path length between the anchor and the tag, and the reflection. For the
j-th surface (
), the virtual anchor is the mirroring of the anchor on that surface. The mirroring of the anchor at position
on a plane is to be computed in two iterations as shown in
Figure 6 (a). First, determine the origin of the normal of the plane passing through the anchor position
. Then determine the route (
x,
y,
z) between the origin of the normal and the anchor itself. The virtual anchor of the
j-th surface is on the other side of this plane located at position
. Overall for a spatial geometry with
J walls
J virtual anchors result.
Note: For the calculation of a valid virtual anchor it is not necessary that the origin of the normal is inside the surface.
Step 2. Calculation of the echo path: To model the multipath propagation delay accurately, a single parameter per path is needed, namely the path length
for the generation of
. We calculate the point
where the reflection occurs for validity check of the path. These steps are sketched in
Figure 6 (b).
Due to geometry, the path length
is identical to the distance between the virtual anchor and the tag:
where
represents the Euclidean distance. For the point
where the reflection occurs, we draw a line between the virtual anchor and the tag. The intersection between the plane or the surface and the line is equal to
. The resulting path leads from
over
to
.
Step 3. Check path for validity: Not all paths created in the way described above are valid and thus distort the modeled receive signal. The first case occurs, if the reflection
happens in the plane but outside the surface.
Figure 6 (c) sketches the case where the
is on the plane but not on the surface resulting in an invalid path.
The second case is, if a given surface (an obstacle e.g. a pillar) is interrupting the signal echo path, as shown in
Figure 6 (d). With a single reflection, the path divides into two straight lines: One from
to the
and the second from
to
. For both lines, we check, if one of the remaining surfaces
intersects with any line. First, we check if there is an intersection with any surface’s plane. If this is true, the respective intersection is tested, if it is inside the plane’s surface. If this is the case for at least one line and one surface, the path becomes invalid.
The exclusive integration of paths with a single reflection does not adequately represent reality. Also, paths with multiple reflections need to be taken into account. To model such paths, we apply the above steps for paths with more than a single reflection e.g.(). The change is that additional mirroring occurs in step 1 and that the validity checks in step 2 are expanded for the path calculation.
In step 1, except mirroring the original anchor, we mirror the
j-th virtual anchor at all remaining surfaces with
resulting in 2
nd-order virtual anchor at
.
Figure 7 (a) shows how additional virtual anchors are created for additional reflections in the paths.
So, overall two reflection points result. On the line
to
,
is its intersection with the
k-th wall.
is the intersection of the line
to
with the
j-th wall. The path length of the corresponding signal path is
.
Figure 7 (b) depicts the path determination in step 2.
Finally, in step 3, this time three lines, namely to , to and to , are checked for interruption of the surface as mentioned above.
Knowing all I valid paths and their respective lengths , the needed characterization parameters are determinable. The estimated delays are not only needed for modeling the receive signal. Also, they are included for the upcoming statistical amplitude analysis.
3.3.2. Statistical Analysis of the Amplitude for Estimation
According to eq. (
4), to realistically model the receive signal we need transmission delay
and amplitude
of each signal echo. Compared to
, the modeling of the complex amplitude
is more challenging [
22], as it is influenced by external factors such as material- and angle-dependent reflection coefficients and hardware-specific factors such as the automatic gain control (AGC) and the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) [
27]. Also, the characteristics of the interference between two signal echoes is a further challenge which, under the given circumstances, makes it extremely difficult to trace back to specific amplitudes [
30]. So, for SALOS we will model the amplitude randomized. In the following, we analyze the distribution statistically and identify important factors of the result. Based on them, we describe the chosen randomized modeling of the amplitude.
Note: In the following, we call the direct path without reflection the 0th (reflection) order path. The paths with 1 or 2 reflection points are called the 1st and 2nd (reflection) order paths.
Analysis of amplitude’s characteristics and influence on modeling: For the analysis of amplitude’s characteristics, we recorded around 600 signal measurements for 20 tag and anchor position combinations, resulting in around 12,000 measurements. For these measurements, we determine the transmission delay of all signal echoes of the 0
th, 1
st, and 2
nd reflection orders following
Section 3.3.1.
We estimate the complex amplitude
of the signal echoes iteratively in magnitude
and phase
. To analyze the amplitude with decreasing receive power, we consider the 0
th order signal echo first, then the reflections of the 1
st order with increasing transmission delay, and finally, the signal echoes of the 2
nd order also with increasing transmission delay. The following steps are identical for all echoes, as shown in
Figure 8. First, we determine the analysis interval
, to compensate discrepancies between the measurement setup and modeling of up to 30 cm (
ns). Within this interval, we find the highest magnitude of the measured signal. For this maximum, we save the amplitude in magnitude and phase as
. If there was no maximum in the interval, but only a continuous curve, we save the complex amplitude at
. Finally, we subtract the shaped signal echo
from the measured signal and process this difference further with the next signal echo.
Note: The following analysis is intended to provide an overview of the amplitudes for the given model. For a more realistic characterization of the amplitude, the distribution must be examined more closely. But here, indicators are enough for us to accurately model the complex amplitude successfully for the artificial receive signals.
We classify the amplitudes according to 0th (around 12,000 values), 1st (around 60,000 values), and 2nd order (around 120,000 values) reflections. For analysis, we divide the complex values into phase and magnitude.
With few deviations, the phase estimations of the 0th,1st and 2nd order reflections are located in the interval . There is no correlation between transmission delay and phase value, therefore these phases are considered independent of the transmission delay.
The results of the magnitude estimation are shown in
Figure 9. From left to right, it depicts the magnitude estimations for all 0
th,1
st and 2
nd order signal echoes with respect to the estimated transmission delay
. As expected following Friis’ path loss model in eq. (
2), the direct path shows an exponential decay of the magnitude with increasing distance between the sensor nodes. The red line in the plot depicts the exponential fitting with respect to the path losses.
Table 1 lists the resulting fitting. The magnitudes of the 1
st and 2
nd order reflection are independent of the transmission delay. For them, the distribution of the magnitude is randomly between 0 and a maximum value: 1
st order maximum at
dBm, 2
nd order maximum at
dBm. We do not know the reason for this random distribution, but we take the corresponding maximum values as characteristics for modeling in our approach.
Based on the given characteristics, we determine random numbers for the magnitude and phase of each signal echo. Each phase is assumed to be uniformly distributed with
. In general, for magnitude modeling, we assume the 0
th order signal echoes to match the fitting described above. The magnitudes of 1
st and 2
nd order are normally distributed with
. For this, we determine mean
and standard deviation
based on the given sets of magnitudes. For these magnitudes, we also limit the random numbers upwards and downwards. If one of the random numbers is outside this range, the number is rolled again until the magnitude is within the range. The description of the random modeling for the 0
th, 1
st and 2
nd order reflections is listed in
Table 1:
At this point, modeling for the transmission delays and the complex-valued amplitude were presented. Now the construction of the modeled receive signals and the allocation to signal sets for reference follows.
3.3.3. Modeling of the Receive Signals Sets for Reference
As mentioned above, to model accurately artificial receive signals we need the UWB transmit signal
as well as a realistic CIR. With the given estimates for
and
, we construct the CIR
. Following eq. (
4), with respect to the CP of the tag,
becomes
and the modeled signal
is calculated by convolution of
and
:
The random amplitudes are crucial for the final shape of the modeled signals.
Figure 10 shows at the top left a measured signal for a known spatial geometry, tag, and anchor position. The other receive signals shown are modeled based on the same setup with varying estimations of the complex amplitudes
. The respective correlation coefficient is given in the plot titles. While the shape at the top right seems to fit well, the modeled signals in the bottom row differ significantly from the measured one. This results only from the miss-modeled CIRs.
A good variance within the modeling increases the probability of correctly estimating the corresponding measured signal. For this, we create sets of different randomly modeled signals per CP. These sets serve as reference data for SALOS.
After the description of SALOS’ modeling for the artificial reference data, the next section depicts how the localization with majority decision is done.