Unveiling the Impact of Repeaters on Cellular-Based Positioning

Network-transparent repeaters (NTRs) extend cellular coverage but introduce uncompensated timing and angular biases that degrade positioning performance. This letter presents a unified framework that models and analyzes the impact of NTR-induced biases on time- and angle-based positioning through the equivalent Fisher information matrix (EFIM). We quantify their impact through Cramér–Rao lower bounds (CRLBs) and Monte Carlo simulations. Results show that NTRs significantly degrade positioning accuracy, highlighting the need for explicit calibration of NTR-induced biases in next generation positioning systems.