Using unlocated fingerprints in generation of WLAN maps for indoor positioning

This paper presents five methods for generation of WLAN maps for indoor positioning using crowdsourced fingerprints. A fingerprint is assumed to contain identifiers of WLAN access points, received signal strength values and, if the fingerprint is collected outdoors, a GPS position. The proposed methods use the fingerprints' information to generate a WLAN map that contains estimated access point locations. Two of the proposed methods use RSS values in access point location estimation. In our evaluation with simulations and with real data, the Access Point Least Squares method, which does not use RSS information, is the fastest and its accuracy is as good as more complex methods that use RSS information.