ABSTRACT
One of the most popular methods to measure the distance of a device from a reference point is to use the received signal strength (RSS) of a signal transmitted from the reference point with the target device or equivalently measure the RSS of the signal transmitted from the device at the reference points. Understanding of the RSS-based ranging is essential for learning how RSS-based localization systems work. Outdoor models for the RSS behavior are mostly designed for cellular telephony applications and they include details of antenna height and frequency of operation. For small distances in indoor areas, the transmitter and the receiver are often in the same room, where the RSS from the direct line-of-sight paths dominates the power arriving from other paths. Shadow fading represents variations of the RSS from the linear regression line in dB caused by objects shadowing the path between the transmitter and the receiver.
