An architecture for minimizing calibration effort in an IEEE 802.11 device location measurement system. The calibration technique is based upon a regression function that produces adequately accurate location information as a function of signal strength regardless of gaps in the calibration data or minimally available data. The algorithm takes a set of signal strengths from known room locations in a building and generates a function giving (x,y) as a function of signal strength, which function may then be used for the estimation of new locations. Radial basis functions, which are simple to express and compute, are used for regression. The fact that the algorithm maps signal strength to continuous location makes it possible to skip rooms during calibration, yet still evaluate the location in those rooms.