Centre for Security, Communications and Network Research

Plymouth University

A Feasibility Study into Tracking Wi-Fi Enabled Mobile Devices

Dagnall M, Clarke NL

Proceedings of the Ninth International Network Conference (INC2012)

Port Elizabeth, South Africa, July, ISBN: 978-1-84102-315-1, pp85-92

2012

Modern mobile and portable devices such as laptops and smart phones are expensive technologies that are often the target of theft. In the event that they are lost or stolen, it is desirable to recover them and their contents if possible. Whilst existing tracker technologies can often provide a rough geo-location, they lack in providing resolution in the last few hundred meters. This research focuses on the development of a mobile system for locating WiFi enabled portable devices via the WiFi signal emanating from them. A mobile localisation system utilising a combination of a directional Yagi antenna and the received signal strength was developed and shown to be effective at locating WiFi sources at ranges from 45m to 500m away depending on the environment.

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