An Enhanced ZigBee-Based Indoor Localization Method Using Multi-Stage RSSI Filtering and LQI-Aware MLE

Abstract

Accurate indoor localization in wireless sensor networks remains a non-trivial challenge, particularly in complex environments characterized by signal variability and multipath propagation. This study presents a ZigBee-based localization approach that integrates multi-stage preprocessing of received signal strength indicator (RSSI) data with a reliability-aware extension of the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) algorithm. To improve measurement stability, a hybrid filtering framework combining Kalman filtering, Dixon’s Q test, Gaussian smoothing, and mean averaging is applied to reduce the influence of noise and outliers. Building on the filtered data, the proposed method introduces a noise and link quality indicator (LQI)-based dynamic weighting mechanism that adjusts the contribution of each distance estimate during localization. The approach was evaluated under simulated and semi-physical non-line-of-sight (NLOS) indoor conditions designed to reflect practical deployment scenarios. While based on a limited set of representative test points, the method yielded improved positioning consistency and achieved an average accuracy gain of 11.7% over conventional MLE in the tested environments. These results suggest that the proposed method may offer a feasible solution for resource-constrained localization applications requiring robustness to signal degradation.