Symbiotic Positioning, Navigation, and Timing

• Main Authors: Siraj, Md Sadman, Rahman, Aisha B, Tsiropoulou, Eirini Eleni, Papavassiliou, Symeon, Plusquellic, Jim
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: 6G mobile communication; Estimation error; Game Theory; Games; Heuristic algorithms; Nash equilibrium; Navigation; Positioning; Potential Games; Symbiosis; Symbiotic Relationships; Timing
• ISSN: 2325-2944
• DOI: 10.1109/DCOSS-IoT58021.2023.00052

The explosive growth of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and location based services, along with the development of various 6G enabling technologies, are fueling the need for the design of alternative Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) solutions. In this paper, following this trend and inspired by the evolution of biological ecosystems, we introduce a novel symbiotic PNT solution, based on the principles of Game Theory and the exploitation of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs). A set of actors, consisting of anchor nodes and RISs with known coordinates, collaborator nodes having a rough estimate of their positions, and targets of unknown positions, are cooperating to accurately determine the targets' positioning and timing. The key objective is to minimize the estimation error of each target and collaborator node, as well as of the overall examined system. The RISs' phase shifts optimization is performed to maximize the received signal strength of the signals reflected on the RISs and received by the collaborator nodes and the targets. Then, the optimization problem of the positioning and timing estimation error is formulated as a potential game among the targets and collaborator nodes, and the existence of at least one Nash Equilibrium is proven. Two algorithmic approaches, namely Asynchronous and Synchronous Best Response Dynamics, are introduced to determine the Nash Equilibrium, while the performance evaluation of the proposed approach is achieved via modeling and simulation.