WE3B-5
A Ranging System for an IEEE 802.11 OFDM Transceiver
Ari Hämäläinen and Ilari Teikari
Nokia Research Center, Helsinki, P.O. Box 407, 00450 Nokia Group, Finland
ilari.teikari@nokia.com
Abstract — In this paper we propose a method for dis-
tance estimation between two transceivers. The method is
based on controlling transmission times of packets and calcu-
lation of the relative phase-shifts of the OFDM subcarriers.
We demonstrate the system using simulations of a bit and
cycle accurate VHDL model of an IEEE 802.11a WLAN
transceiver and the distance measurement algorithm.
Index Terms — Distance measurement, Position mea-
surement, Wireless LAN
I. INTRODUCTION
The distance estimation between two transceivers and
location estimation has been a topic of interest during last
years [1]. Such methods make possible, e.g., to locate a
person in case of emergency or can be used for navigation
and positioning. For outdoors, GPS is widely used but for
indoor positioning it is fairly useless.
For indoor positioning several methods have been pro-
posed. The distance and position estimation can, for ex-
ample, be based on synchronized clocking or phase shifts
[2], or MAC frame structure [3]. Wireless Local Area
Networks (WLAN) are also used for ranging and position-
ing. The received signal strength (RSS) [4] and Round
Trip Time (RTT) estimation [5] can be used for distance
estimation. The problems in these are that depending on
channel the estimates may vary a lot, and many samples
are needed for accurate estimate. Using frame synchroni-
zation for timing and ranging on Orthogonal Frequency
Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is studied in [6]. The
OFDM is interesting choice for indoor ranging because it
used in existing networks (WLAN) and is candidate also
for coming systems (3GPP LTE).
In this paper we propose a new approach for distance
estimation using OFDM and phase offset estimation. The
key idea here is to set a kind of time synchronization be-
tween two TRxs on OFDM symbol level by controlling
the transmission and receiving sampling time for Fast
Fourier Transform (FFT). The method is somewhat simi-
lar to continuous wave radar [7,8], but the used band is
narrow and no reflections are measured. Rather, signal is
transmitted to both directions for distance estimation. Note
also that all the subcarriers are measured at the same time
and no frequency hopping is needed as in case of CW ra-
dar [7]. As an example, WLAN system is considered.
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II. DESCRIPTION OF THE METHOD
Here, we describe the basic idea of measuring distance
using WLAN. Fig. 1 shows the case where the clocks and
the OFDM symbol timing are equal in both transmitting
and receiving transceiver (TRx). The delay t causes the
received symbol constellation to rotate, because the sam-
pling instant for FFT is not correct. This rotation is seen at
the receiver as
N −1
X R ( k ) = ∑ x (t − Δt )e k 2πift / f s
(1)
t =0
N −1
= e k 2πifΔt / f s ∑ x(t )e k 2πift / f s = e k 2πifΔt / f s X T (k ) ,
t =0
where X (k )T / R is the transmitted/received signal constella-
tion before/after IFFT/FFT on subcarrier
k = -N/2 +1,…,N/2, where N is the FFT size, x(t) is the
OFDM symbol in time domain, f is carrier spacing, t is
time and f s is sampling frequency. The time of flight
Δt can now be estimated from the rotation of the X (k ) R , if
is known, and the final distance estimate is Δt mul-
X (k )T
tiplied by speed of light c.
By transmitting the signal to both directions, we can
get rid off assumption that the clocks should be equal.
Further, because the symbol transmitted is actually OFDM
symbol, both of the TRxs should have an additional
OFDM symbol timer. When, e.g., TRx1 transmits an
OFDM symbol, it sets its own OFDM symbol timer and,
when receiving signal, matches this timer so that received
OFDM symbol is sampled using symbol timing corres-
ponding to transmission timing, i.e. the time between
transmission and receiving is n times the time needed for
transmitting an OFDM (guard interval + FFT period)
symbol, n is integer. Further, the processing time from
receiving signal to transmitting signal should be also
m·(guard interval + FFT period), m is integer.
This time matching between transmitting and receiving
is done at the both TRx1 and TRx2. Then the time of
flight can be calculated as an average
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 Δt
XR
Fig.1: The basic idea of using the time offset of FFT and received symbol for distance estimation.
Δt1− > 2 + Δt 2 − >1
Δt = , (2)
2 and then the distance.
Δt1− > 2 = Δt c + t tof + Δt OFDM _ sym ,
Δt 2 − >1 = − Δtc + ttof − ΔtOFDM _ sym .
Here ΔtOFDM _ sym is the time offset between TRxs’ OFDM
symbol timing, Δtc difference between their clocking and
t tof the true time of flight between the two TRx.
The distance estimation could be done in both TRx1 and
TRx2. However for simplicity and to keep the signal qual-
ity better, the system demonstrated in this paper calculates
the distance in TRx1 (Fig.2). First TRx1 sends the data
packet (training and data) to TRx2. TRx2 synchronizes to
this packet, and reset its own OFDM symbol timer. Then
it transforms the data into frequency domain and then back
into time domain after which it transmits the signal back
to TRx1 synchronous to its symbol timer. TRx2 works
like a reflector and it does not demodulate the data part of
the signal but sends back the signal constellation as it was
received. This way the clock and OFDM symbol timing
offset can be removed. Transformation to frequency do-
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main and back is done to allow channel compensation at
TRx2. The TRx1 then receives the packet, transforms it
into frequency domain and calculates the phase rotations
Now we have set a kind of time synchronization be-
tween two TRxs on OFDM symbol level by controlling
the transmission and receiving sampling time for
IFFT/FFT. The actual clocking may be different in both
TRxs, but the transmission and receiving operations are
done in m times (guard interval + FFT size) long cycles
(4m μs in WLAN), both TRxs controlling their own
OFDM symbol timer. This extra controlling means that
before transmitting, TRx listens if channel is free (as in
standard WLAN system) and addition to this, checks that
OFDM symbol cycle condition is fulfilled.
Since the method relies on knowing the original phases
of the symbols used for the distance estimation, the
WLAN pilot carriers can be used to estimate the phase
rotation and, thus Δt . We know, that the difference in
phase rotations between two carriers at distance of nf
from each other is constant
e( k + n ) 2πifΔt / f s
k 2πifΔt / f s
= e 2πi nfΔt / f s . (3)
e
 Δt

Δt

2Δ t

Fig.2: The method used. TRx1 (left) transmit a symbol. TRx2 receives it and synchronized. Then TRx2 sends the received symbol back
in a constellation as it was received. TRx1 can do the measurements.

If all the transmitted symbols are known, we can com- and TRx2 to see, how accurate the distance estimation
pare neighboring subcarriers to get longer maximum esti- could be. The signal-to-noise ratio was set to 20 dB. Each
mated distance and do several comparisons during one sample is calculated from one OFDM symbol known to
OFDM symbol, average the results and this way improve TRx1 which was transmitted to two directions. The fre-
the estimation accuracy. Further, it is also possible to av- quency space symbols X (k )T were BPSK modulated.
erage the results over several OFDM symbols. Fig.3 shows the simulations results. The distance to be
estimated varies from 0m to 75m in 15m steps. The top
III. SIMULATION MODEL left figure shows the estimated distances. There are some
cases where the estimation error is quite large. This error
The system algorithm was verified by bit and cycle ac-
was caused by significant attenuation of the signal due to
curate simulations using Matlab/Simulink and Modelsim
the channel model. The error could be reduced with adap-
simulators. The IEEE 802.11a transceiver and the distance
tive gain control, but it was not implemented in the simu-
estimation algorithm were implemented using fully syn-
lations. The top right and bottom left figures are magnifi-
thesizable VHDL and designed for a FPGA implementa-
cations of the region around zero meters in top left figure.
tion. The transmitted OFDM symbols were predefined and
As can be seen, there is about 2 meter bias in estimated
stored into a ROM in TRx1. The implementation of the
distance that is caused by the analog and digital filtering.
system included channel equalization at both TRx1 (rang-
The DSP sampling frequency of 80 MHz limits the com-
ing device) and TRx2 (reflector device).
pensation of this bias by digital delays to resolution of 3.5
The D/A and A/D conversion and analog channel mod-
meters (one clock cycle). However, this is not a problem,
els and impairments (quadrature modulator errors, clock
because the bias is constant and thus can be taken into
mismatch etc.) were implemented with Simulink blocks.
account when calculating the phase rotation. The bottom
The channel was modeled with a Rician channel model
right figure shows the estimated distance versus the true
with four paths and nearly constant path gains during one
distance.
OFDM packet. The A/D and D/A converter clock fre-
As can be seen, the distance estimation seems to work
quencies were chosen to be 80 MHz. WLAN channel fil-
quite well. If the bias is removed, the deviation is about 4
ters with 16 MHz bandwidth were used. The distance was
meters, but some of the outliers caused this high error. The
modeled with variable delay that could be adjusted in 500
averaging over several OFDM symbols would decrease
ps steps which corresponds to 0.14 m distance.
the error. This averaging should be done in any case, be-
cause the signal strength and channel conditions vary.
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
In the simulator we used multi-path fading channel and
varying clock and OFDM symbol offsets between TRx1

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 Fig.3: Simulation results. Distance estimation error mean was 2.17 m and deviation 4.16 m
V. CONCLUSION AND FURTHER WORK
We proposed a new way doing ranging using OFDM
system and phase method. The system was demonstrated
by simulating IEEE 802.11a WLAN transceivers. The
addition of the algorithm required only minor modifica-
tions to the transceiver part. The idea is based on control-
ling OFDM symbol transmission and receiving times by
setting OFDM symbol clock. The reported simulation re-
sults show that the approach is feasible.
We are currently implementing a test system to see how
this will work in real world. The first measurements prom-
ise 1 meter accuracy with probability of 0.76 while dis-
tance was varying from 2 to 50 meters. The system devel-
opment is still under work and the final measurement re-
sults will be reported later.
Acknowledgement: We thank our colleagues for help-
ful comments and discussion during this work.
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