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arXiv · 2503.12264

Indoor Positioning for Public Safety: Role of UAVs, LEOs, and Propagation-Aware Techniques

Gaurav Duggal·Harish K. Dureppagari·Harpreet S. Dhillon·Jeffrey H. Reed·R. Michael Buehrer
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Abstract

Effective indoor positioning is critical for public safety, enabling first responders to locate at-risk individuals accurately during emergency scenarios. However, traditional Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) often perform poorly indoors due to poor coverage and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) conditions. Moreover, relying on fixed cellular infrastructure, such as terrestrial networks (TNs), may not be feasible, as indoor signal coverage from a sufficient number of base stations or WiFi access points cannot be guaranteed for accurate positioning. In this paper, we propose a rapidly deployable indoor positioning system (IPS) leveraging mobile anchors, including uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) and Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO) satellites, and discuss the role of GNSS and LEOs in localizing the mobile anchors. Additionally, we discuss the role of sidelink-based positioning, which is introduced in 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 18, in enabling public safety systems. By examining outdoor-to-indoor (O2I) signal propagation, particularly diffraction-based approaches, we highlight how propagation-aware positioning methods can outperform conventional strategies that disregard propagation mechanism information. The study highlights how emerging 5G Advanced and Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) features offer new avenues to improve positioning in challenging indoor environments, ultimately paving the way for cost-effective and resilient IPS solutions tailored to public safety applications.

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Gaurav Duggal, Harish K. Dureppagari, Harpreet S. Dhillon, Jeffrey H. Reed, R. Michael Buehrer. 2025-03-15. Indoor Positioning for Public Safety: Role of UAVs, LEOs, and Propagation-Aware Techniques. https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.12264

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