An Analysis of Multiple Criteria and Setups for Bluetooth Smartphone-Based Indoor Localization Mechanism

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) 4.0 beacons will play a major role in the deployment of energy-efficient indoor localization mechanisms. Since BLE4.0 is highly sensitive to fast fading impairments, numerous ongoing studies are currently exploring the use of supervised learning algorithm as an alternative approach to exploit the information provided by the indoor radio maps. Despite the large number of results reported in the literature, there are still many open issues on the performance evaluation of such approach. In this paper, we start by identifying, in a simple setup, the main system parameters to be taken into account on the design of BLE4.0 beacons-based indoor localization mechanisms. In order to shed some light on the evaluation process using supervised learning algorithm, we carry out an in-depth experimental evaluation in terms of the mean localization error, local prediction accuracy, and global prediction accuracy. Based on our results, we argue that, in order to fully assess the capabilities of supervised learning algorithms, it is necessary to include all the three metrics.