A Generalized TDoA/ToA Model for ToF Positioning

TL;DR

This paper introduces a generalized ToF positioning method that is infrastructure-less, robust to clock errors, and unifies existing TDoA and ToA algorithms, improving channel efficiency.

Contribution

It presents a novel, unified ToF localization approach that eliminates the need for pre-defined roles and enhances robustness against clock errors.

Findings

Comparable or better clock error robustness than existing methods

Superior channel usage in most cases

Derivation of known algorithms from the new framework

Abstract

Many applications require positioning. Time of Flight (ToF) methods calculate distances by measuring the propagation time of signals. We present a novel ToF localization method. Our new approach works infrastructure-less, without pre-defined roles like Anchors or Tags. It generalizes existing synchronization-less Time Difference of Arrival (TDoA) and Time of Arrival (ToA) algorithms. We show how known algorithms can be derived from our new method. A major advantage of our approach is that it provides a comparable or better clock error robustness, i.e. the typical errors of crystal oscillators have negligible impact for TDoA and ToA measurements. We show that our channel usage is for most cases superior compared to the state-of-the art.