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How is an Aruba AP(Managed by Aruba Central) able to triangulate a users location?

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  • 1.  How is an Aruba AP(Managed by Aruba Central) able to triangulate a users location?

    Posted Sep 16, 2022 06:25 AM
    Hello,

    How is Aruba AP(Managed by Aruba Central) able to triangulate a users location?

    The issue that we have is , when viewing the Floorplan in Aruba central, the location of  a user/device  that is connected to an AP is not that accurate compared to the actual location of the user relative to the AP where that user is  connected to. There will be like an 8 to 10 meters difference from the actual location of the  user.

    Is there a workaround on or any the settings in Aruba central so we can get a more accurate view of users location in the Map/Floor plan?


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    Regards,
    GM.
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  • 2.  RE: How is an Aruba AP(Managed by Aruba Central) able to triangulate a users location?

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Sep 16, 2022 07:50 AM
    generally a device should be heard by at least 3x APs to be able to triangulate it.
    and roughly you'll have an AP every 12-15 meters.
    then with Central you can set the grid size of the floor plan, so a 10x10 grid size will give you more accuracy than 5x5 grid size.

    Now our 6E APs, they have GPS chips and use fine time measurement (FTM) which brings totally a new dimension to location services
    for more info refer here
    https://www.wifireference.com/2022/03/30/arubas-self-locating-ap-technology-is-truly-remarkable/

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    Any opinions expressed here are solely my own and not necessarily that of Hewlett Packard Enterprise or Aruba.
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: How is an Aruba AP(Managed by Aruba Central) able to triangulate a users location?

    Posted Sep 20, 2022 02:20 AM
    @arijap, We only have AP515s and I understand that FTM should be used to get a more accurate user location. Checking on the link that you provided, AP 515 doesn't have GPS chips but they could be manually anchored to position and still be able to participate in FTM ranging process. I've checked in Aruba Central and I don't see any settings/options to enable FTM. Maybe you or someone in this community can share how to enable this feature?
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: How is an Aruba AP(Managed by Aruba Central) able to triangulate a users location?

    Posted Sep 20, 2022 02:27 AM
    Or should there be at least one AP that has the GPS chip like AP600 series anchored to the map to obtain the exact latitude/longitudes from the GPS satellites? Then the other anchored APs that doesn't have GPS chips like AP-515 will use FTM via  AP-600 AP as a reference point to fine tune their locations?
    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: How is an Aruba AP(Managed by Aruba Central) able to triangulate a users location?

    Posted Sep 20, 2022 03:45 AM
    Here is the presentation from latest Atmosphere'22 on new location services. Stuart Strickland explains it in quite a details.

    You need 6xx series APs to ancor the map and other APs like 5xx series then can adjust their location. 

    But I think this will just partially solve your problem. Your requirements are different. You would like to locate the client and you depend on client signal to triangulate it. Knowing precise APs positions will help, but only so much. New location services will provide clients to calculate their position more precisely hence providing applications like Google maps and a like to use wifi instead of gps satelite signal inside buildings where gps signal is not available.

    The best what you can do for now is to draw walls and provide as accurate as possible signal losses on those walls. 

    Best, Gorazd

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    Gorazd Kikelj
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: How is an Aruba AP(Managed by Aruba Central) able to triangulate a users location?

    Posted Sep 17, 2022 03:03 AM
    WiFi triangulation is or was not a really precise endeavor. It depend on so many factors so 10m accuracy is quite good. We all hope that with new APs with imbedded GPS receivers we can get much more accurate results.

    Client need to be heard from at least 3 APs to get triangulated. You need to start with really precise floorplan and really precise locations of your APs on the floorplan. APs need to be positioned correctly, preferred in a honeycomb pattern. You need to draw walls and other obstacles in the floorplan and define correct signal loss for each obstacle/wall. Big plants in the rooms can really change the propagation of the signal and skew the result, With a lot of work and experimentations you can narrow down precision to few meters.

    Anyhow the position of the clients in Aruba Central is just a rough estimation.

    Best, Gorazd

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    Gorazd Kikelj
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    Original Message