A survey of hybridisation methods of GNSS and wireless LAN based positioning system

Self-localisation has become a matter of course in our daily life. The emerging market of mobile devices still boosts the demand for seamless, ubiquitous positioning. The repertoire of sensors serviceable for localisation provided by current mobile devices is large; however the main positioning systems used today are based on wireless local area networks (WLAN), cellular networks and certainly global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). Because of the accuracy, the vast deployment and the channel characteristics, researchers have been focused on WLAN based positioning systems (WPS) in particular, to achieve seamless positioning. This paper reviews the latest data fusion approaches to seamless positioning by GNSS and WPS. In accordance to the level of data fusion, several approaches are categorised and briefly presented, differences in performance of these approaches are highlighted and future challenges identified.