A positioning system and method includes a transmitter, a receiver, and a controller. The transmitter includes at least one energy source configured to emit an optical or quasi-optical electromagnetic signal as a channel communication. The receiver includes at least one detector element configured to receive the channel communication. The controller is connected to the receiver and configured to estimate a position of the transmitter within a space using a reference map of the space and one or more diffuse components of an impulse response of the channel communication.