A method for network-based positioning of a mobile device as described herein includes selecting a first set of access points (APs) to take first positioning measurements from the mobile device; obtaining the first positioning measurements from the first set of APs; selecting, based on the first positioning measurements, a second set of APs to take second positioning measurements from the mobile device; obtaining the second positioning measurements from the second set of APs; and determining a location of the mobile device based on the first positioning measurements and the second positioning measurements.