So I have been reading up on some of the latest Wifi features and I came accross 802.11mc. (RTT for indoor location)

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The role of 802.11mc is to calculate the distance between two different wifi devices. This can be used to triangulate locations for devices that are completely out of the range of GPS. For instance, indoors a phone tends to have issues with getting a GPS signal. What this does is it takes the known location of a wireless access point and then finds the distance to that access point. This allows Android among other devices to get location within about 1-2 meters.

For this to work, there needs to be a few things. First off, we need some way to get the real world location of access points. Next, OpenWRT would need some sort of daemon that talks to client devices. From what I can tell there are no foss implementations of 802.11mc. I don't know if anyone is working on this at the moment but if it becomes popular enough it could be worth while. I think this could be really cool if there was a way to map public access points for location services. For now it is just a what if.

Links:

https://www.howtogeek.com/346245/how-802.11mc-will-be-used-to-track-your-location-indoors/

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Glad that I don't need GPS for in-room navigation nor I need indoor ads from Google targeted at 1-2 m ;- )

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Is this hardware dependent of the wifi chip in access points or is it only software dependent?

And this pretty much also acquire only one router that have at least two dumb access point.

(Just a sidenote, Apple iPhone have had this tech a long time, that is why it say ‘turn on wifi to get better positioning’ in shopping centers and likewise)

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This would be extremely interesting for home automatisation, no need for crappy movement sensors any more

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Hardware support needed. Cf ptp

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It is nice when you need to get a location. Sometimes I look at the map in my arm chair.

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Very few commercial vendors support it. Most notable client is android.

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Hmm...location through IP address, mobile towers and WiFi stations is widely available and likely used automatically. Ok, perhaps not 1-2 m to you chair ;- )

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And Apple…

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Those all need proprietary software and services to work

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Allmost all people run proprietary software and services on their phones and tablets ;- )

Known from whom?

Some other posibilities exist though...local on phone databases can be generated:

The µg Project at https://github.com/microg has a unified network location provider that accepts backends for the actual location lookup.

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It does not need proprietary software to query mozilla location file or network google api. But what you are asking, RTT needs OEM access point firmware, expensive management solution and manually posting AP location to google apple whatever.

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New technology: 802.11az is a Wi-Fi standard designed for more accurate device positioning. Unlike 802.11mc, which relies on RTT (Round Trip Time) to measure distances between devices, 802.11az enhances this mechanism by providing higher accuracy, lower latency, and better energy efficiency.

802.11az also supports advanced use cases such as real-time object tracking, indoor navigation, and precise positioning for IoT devices.

Combined with 802.11mc, this new standard enables more accurate and reliable geolocation systems, essential for smart homes, AR/VR applications, and industrial scenarios.

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image

Way to go....

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In all fairness this is not a technical concern

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"With IEEE 802.11az, location accuracy has moved from 1–2 meters (802.11-2016) to now be accurate to sub 1 meter, into the domain of less than 0.1 meter"

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