Recent Advances in Indoor Localization: A Survey on Theoretical Approaches and Applications

The availability of location information has become a key factor in today’s communications systems allowing location based services. In outdoor scenarios, the mobile terminal position is obtained with high accuracy thanks to the Global Positioning System (GPS) or to the standalone cellular systems. However, the main problem of GPS and cellular systems resides in the indoor environment and in scenarios with deep shadowing effects where the satellite or cellular signals are broken. In this paper, we survey different technologies and methodologies for indoor and outdoor localization with an emphasis on indoor methodologies and concepts. Additionally, we discuss in this review different localization-based applications, where the location information is critical to estimate. Finally, a comprehensive discussion of the challenges in terms of accuracy, cost, complexity, security, scalability, etc. is given. The aim of this survey is to provide a comprehensive overview of existing efforts as well as auspicious and anticipated dimensions for future work in indoor localization techniques and applications