Performance Limits of Visible Light-Based User Position and Orientation Estimation Using Received Signal Strength Under NLOS Propagation

In this paper, we aim at providing a unified performance analysis framework for visible light-based positioning (VLP) using received signal strength (RSS), which can be used to gain insights into improving the performance of RSS-based VLP systems. Specifically, we first obtain a closed-form Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) for the user equipment (UE) location and orientation, respectively. Then, we reveal the impact of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), transmission distance, prior knowledge and the number of LED sources on the RSS-based VLP performance. Moreover, the impact of the non-line-of-sight (NLOS) propagation on the RSS-based VLP performance is studied. It is shown that the RSS-based VLP performance will hit an error floor caused by the unknown NLOS links. These NLOS-caused UE location and orientation error floors in the high SNR region are analyzed. Finally, the information contribution of each LED source is studied to give an intuitive understanding on the impact of the LED array geometry on the RSS-based VLP performance. The obtained CRLB and the associated VLP performance analysis form a theoretical basis for the design of efficient VLP algorithms and VLP performance optimization strategies (e.g., resource allocation and smart LED source selection).