WiFi Scan (L3)

Introduction

WiFi scan location has the device scan for nearby WiFi access points and uplink the access points it found (their BSSIDs and signal strengths). Amazon Sidewalk resolves coordinates from that scan against an access-point database.

How the Cloud Resolves the Fix

Amazon Sidewalk forwards the scanned access points (MAC address and signal strength per access point) to the AWS IoT Wireless GetPositionEstimate service, which returns a position estimate.

If the scan cannot be resolved, AWS IoT Wireless reports that it could not solve a position. This is deterministic for a given scan: the same set of access points will not resolve on a retry, so no location is produced for that scan.

Accuracy and Constraints

• Resolution depends on the scanned access points being present in the access-point database; unknown or sparse access points do not resolve.
• Accuracy depends on how many known access points were seen and how densely the area is mapped.

---