Wi-Fi Ranging: Delivering Ranging and Location Technologies of Tomorrow Today

Wi-Fi ranging technology uses time-of-flight measurements to estimate the distance between two Wi-Fi devices. For over a decade this technology has been enabling application developers and other solutions implementers to provide a variety of services including indoor navigation, asset tracking, geofencing, access control (locking/unlocking), and device operation, all with increased accuracy and performance without sacrificing real estate or overall bill of materials (BOM) cost. Since their implementation in 2009, the Qualcomm Wi-Fi ranging technology has been shipping in billions of devices globally with clear signs of accelerated adoption. Ranging capabilities have also continued to improve over multiple generations. This progress has led to greater levels of accuracy and performance, enabling a wide range of potential use cases. This presentation provides insights into the history, use cases, performance factors, and near-term innovations of Wi-Fi ranging technology. It also highlights statistical methods that application developers and other solutions implementers can use to enhance ranging accuracy in their applications. It draws on the results of extensive measurement campaigns using the Qualcomm Wi-Fi ranging technology to demonstrate achievable ranging accuracies in real-world scenarios.