Physical Modeling and Performance Bounds for Device-free Localization Systems

In this letter, an analytically tractable model based on diffraction theory is proposed to describe the perturbations of the electromagnetic propagation of radio signals caused by the presence of a moving object in the 2D area near the transmitting/receiving devices. This novel model is instrumental to the evaluation of non-cooperative device-free localization (DFL) systems as it allows to relate the received signal strength measurements of multiple radio links to the object size, orientation and position. The proposed model is validated experimentally using radio devices and it is used to derive closed-form fundamental limits to DFL accuracy, providing an analytical tool for DFL system design and network 2D pre-deployment assessment.