Silencing the Noise: How RSSI Filtering Keeps Tracking Accurate

By Jordi Torné. June 4th, 2026

Operational Impact

• The Bottleneck: Radio signals bleed through warehouse walls, causing location tracking systems to register assets in the wrong rooms and create phantom inventory movements.

• The IT Solution: Deploying Akalta’s Bambeo software platform at the network edge to filter out weak, bleeding signals using precise power thresholds.

• The Impact on KPIs: Eliminates ghost inventory updates, maintaining an accurate floor picks-per-hour rate and preventing data corruption in enterprise systems.

The Invisible Wall Problem

Imagine looking at your warehouse management screen and seeing a critical parts pallet listed inside Shipping Bay 3. Your picker drives a forklift straight to the bay, only to find an empty concrete floor. The parts are actually sitting in the adjacent maintenance room, but the tracking signal passed right through the wall.

This tracking error is called a phantom read, which happens because radio waves do not stop at physical barriers like drywall or wood. Tracking networks use Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS) anchors mounted to ceilings to listen for battery-powered tags attached to assets. When a tag transmits, anchors in nearby rooms pick up the signal and trick your software into logging an incorrect location.

For operations managers with little technical experience, this looks like a broken tracking system. In reality, the hardware is simply catching every single radio wave in the building. Akalta developed Bambeo to fix this exact data overlap using intelligent signal filtering.

The Daily Cost of Phantom Reads

When ghost asset locations flood your Warehouse Management System (WMS) or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) database, floor operations slow down immediately. Workers spend 10–15 minutes tracking down missing containers that the software claims are nearby. These small delays accumulate over a standard shift, causing missed shipping windows.

In automated factories, phantom reads disrupt how Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) route materials. An Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) might stop because it receives an alert that a pallet is blocking its path, even though that pallet is safely behind a wall. This false alert stops the automated vehicle and locks up the transport aisle.

To measure how these errors damage your business, operations teams track Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). Tracking errors hurt the performance score because machines and workers sit idle while resolving inventory placement issues. The official formula demonstrates how these factors combine:

OEE = Availability * Performance * Quality

Bambeo stabilizes the performance metric by ensuring your automated assets move without ghost interruptions. It provides clean data directly to your core logistics platform, keeping your daily picks-per-hour rate stable.

Demystifying RSSI

Every tracking system measures radio signals using a metric called Received Signal Strength Indicator, or RSSI. Think of RSSI as a volume meter for radio waves. When an asset tag is right next to a ceiling receiver, the signal is loud and clear, showing a high RSSI value.

When that same signal passes through a thick concrete block wall, it loses power and grows quiet. The receiver still hears the message, but the RSSI value drops significantly. By measuring this power loss, software can determine whether an object is inside a room or just passing by outside.

Unfiltered tracking setups treat loud and quiet signals exactly the same way. This lack of discrimination fills your database with raw, confusing noise. Bambeo acts as a volume controller that automatically mutes the quiet, bleeding signals from the next room.

How Bambeo Filters the Noise

Bambeo sets a strict mathematical threshold for incoming radio signals. If a signal's RSSI value falls below a specific decibel limit, the software discards the data packet instantly. Only signals that meet or exceed the power threshold pass through to your central WMS or ERP system.

This filtering process happens locally on edge gateways. Processing data at the network edge keeps your internal bandwidth free for daily manufacturing operations. The software uses industrial communication protocols like MQTT and LLRP to handle these data packets safely.

By cleaning the data stream at the edge, Bambeo prevents your central servers from slowing down during busy shipping hours. Your team sees clean, verified location data on their rugged floor tablets without any system lag. Legacy systems like older Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) can also read this filtered data through standard Modbus or Profinet protocols.

Comparing Raw Streams and Filtered Data

The difference between raw tracking data and a filtered system changes how your staff works. Without filtering, a single pallet can trigger dozens of false location updates every hour.

The following table illustrates how Bambeo transforms raw tracking data into reliable inventory records:

Safety, Compliance, and Security Standards

Accurate tracking data keeps your workplace compliant with international industrial standards. For instance, the ISO 3691-4 standard regulates how driverless industrial trucks navigate warehouse floors. If an AMR receives incorrect location data due to signal bleed, it cannot safely plan its path around workers.

Bambeo keeps vehicle coordinates precise to prevent collisions. This technical precision provides clean sensor streams that support floor safety without requiring physical guide rails. It allows safety teams to track the exact Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) of automated pathing routes.

The platform also protects your digital operations by matching industrial cybersecurity rules. It isolates your tracking data according to IEC 62443 guidelines, separating operational technology (OT) from corporate IT networks. This network segmentation ensures that an office email virus cannot enter your factory floor tracking hardware.

For companies operating under European NIS2 data resilience guidelines, Bambeo provides edge backup features. If your primary corporate server loses its network connection, local edge gateways continue to filter and save tracking events. As soon as the connection returns, Bambeo updates your central ERP ledger without losing a single asset movement.