Wireless Sensor Network Planning for Fingerprint based Indoor Localization using ZigBee: Empirical Study Nawaporn Wisitpongphan Faculty of Information Technology, King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok Bangkok, Thailand nawapornn@kmutnb.ac.th Abstract. Technology defined by ZigBee standard is intended for a wide range of ad hoc wireless sensor network (WSN) applications. Among which is the location-aware services which can be applied to both in- door and outdoor environments for locating expensive equipments or tracking any moving objects. While there are many existing localization algorithms, the fingerprint technique which relies on determining target location from an off-line empirical database seems to be the most practi- cal indoor solution using off-the-shelf products. In this work, we present a wireless sensor network planning solution suitable for indoor localization using fingerprint technique. Based on our extensive feasibility studies, we derived several network planning solutions which answer some of the key wireless sensor network design questions such as (1)where to put the router or anchor nodes?, (2) how many routers should we use in de- signing location-aware WSN?, (3) how often should the end-device node transmit data to the server?, (4) what should be a suitable packet size?, and (5) does mobility have any impact on the network performance? Keywords: ad hoc, zigbee, 802.15.4, indoor localization, tracking, fin- gerprint 1 Introduction Location-aware service has gained its popularity over recent years due to a fast growing interest in social network application such as Facebook, FourSquare, Instaweather, etc. In telecommunication and networking, however, localization problem has been introduced for more than a decade. While some work has been commercialized for public usage, e.g., Global Positioning System (GPS), many are still under research and development due to several technical challenges especially in an RF wireless sensor network environment. This is because there are many dynamic factors such as operation failure due to loss of battery power or unexpected obstruction in a real RF environment. These uncontrollable events could lead to large localization error and less accurate results.