A Reliability Index for Position Estimation in Trustworthy Location-Based Services

Location-Based Services (LBS) are crucial for enhancing user experience and operational efficiency across various applications. Although modern wireless technologies have significantly improved the accuracy of location estimates, there is still a gap in the literature on effectively measuring and evaluating the reliability of these estimates. Since the accuracy of LBS is strictly related to the quality of the provided service, the availability of a reliability index is paramount in determining how system resources are effectively allocated. To address this challenge, this paper introduces a reliability index specifically designed for Received Signal Strength (RSS)-based localization methods. Such an index assesses the trustworthiness of position estimates using universally available channel-specific parameters, namely the received power standard deviation and the estimated number of malicious anchors. The approach is validated through simulations employing detailed signal propagation models, demonstrating its robustness across various transmission conditions, system interferences, and levels of malicious activity.