Description

Random Forest is an ensemble of decision trees trained on bootstrapped subsets with random feature splits, aggregated by majority vote (classification) or averaging (regression). It is the canonical strong baseline for hand-crafted CSI feature pipelines because it is non-parametric, requires almost no tuning, and gives feature-importance scores for free.

When it's used

  • Strong non-DL baseline for occupancy / HAR / gesture
  • Feature-importance analysis on subcarrier-statistics inputs
  • Sensor-fusion classifiers combining CSI with other modalities
  • Quick-and-dirty deployment on edge hardware

Limitations

  • Underperforms deep models on raw / weakly-engineered CSI
  • Memory footprint grows with tree count
  • Cannot model time-series structure without windowing

Source Papers

  • fallani2026_04be — Random Forest baseline in CSI sensing
  • chaudhari2024_6efc — RF on subcarrier features
  • demrozi2021_bf55 — RF activity classification
  • ren2023_8cfe — RF baseline in radar sensing
  • chen2018_97e0 — RF occupancy estimation

30 vault papers use this method

Titles and DOIs only — no abstracts, no analyses.

  • Towards Environment Independent Device Free Human Activity Recognition 2018 DOI ↗
  • A Survey on Human Behavior Recognition Using Channel State Information 2019 DOI ↗
  • A survey of recent advances in CNN-based single image crowd counting and density estimation 2018 DOI ↗
  • SenseFi: A library and benchmark on deep-learning-empowered WiFi human sensing 2023 DOI ↗
  • Grouped People Counting Using mm-Wave FMCW MIMO Radar 2023 DOI ↗
  • A Foundational Edge-AI Sensing Framework for Occupancy-Driven Energy Management in SMOs 2026 DOI ↗
  • A Foundational Edge-AI Sensing Framework for Occupancy-Driven Energy Management in SMOs 2026 DOI ↗
  • A Foundational Edge-AI Sensing Framework for Occupancy-Driven Energy Management in SMOs 2026 DOI ↗
  • A Foundational Edge-AI Sensing Framework for Occupancy-Driven Energy Management in SMOs 2026 DOI ↗
  • A Foundational Edge-AI Sensing Framework for Occupancy-Driven Energy Management in SMOs 2026 DOI ↗
  • Fundamentals, Algorithms, and Technologies of Occupancy Detection for Smart Buildings Using IoT Sensors 2024 DOI ↗
  • Building occupancy estimation and detection: A review 2018 DOI ↗
  • CrossSense: Towards Cross-Site and Large-Scale WiFi Sensing 2018 DOI ↗
  • WiFi-Based Human Sensing With Deep Learning: Recent Advances, Challenges, and Opportunities 2024 DOI ↗
  • <i>STRmt</i>: A state transition based model for real‐time crowd counting in a metro system 2024 DOI ↗
  • Simultaneous Crowd Estimation in Counting and Localization Using WiFi CSI 2021 DOI ↗
  • Simultaneous Crowd Estimation in Counting and Localization Using WiFi CSI 2021 DOI ↗
  • Simultaneous Crowd Estimation in Counting and Localization Using WiFi CSI 2021 DOI ↗
  • Simultaneous Crowd Estimation in Counting and Localization Using WiFi CSI 2021 DOI ↗
  • Simultaneous Crowd Estimation in Counting and Localization Using WiFi CSI 2021 DOI ↗
  • A Survey on Fusion-Based Indoor Positioning 2020 DOI ↗
  • A Comprehensive Survey on Automatic Knowledge Graph Construction 2024 DOI ↗
  • A low-cost BLE-based distance estimation, occupancy detection and counting system 2021 DOI ↗
  • Human Activity Recognition via Wi-Fi and Inertial Sensors With Machine Learning 2024 DOI ↗
  • CSI-Chain: A Complete End-to-End Framework for WiFi CSI Sensing 2026 DOI ↗
  • IoT solutions for e-Health applications for care's continuity at home 2026 DOI ↗
  • Crowd Counting via Wi-Fi Probe Requests: Integrating Feature Selection and Data Generation 2025 DOI ↗
  • Guiding Wi-Fi Sensor Placement for Enhanced CSI-Based Sensing in Stationary Crowd Counting 2025 DOI ↗
  • Leveraging Online Learning for Domain-Adaptation in Wi-Fi-Based Device-Free Localization 2025 DOI ↗
  • VICount: Device-free Crowd Counting System Using WiFi Signals 2025 DOI ↗