Methods for Mobile Phone Tracking and Cell Location Raise the Question: Do you really know where they are?
Mobile communications means more than just making a phone call while moving. The latest smartphones include GPS locator features to track phone location. These features, and others such as text messaging, web access and the ability to utilize other applications make cell phones great gadgets. But GPS satellites aren’t always available, such as when the handset is in a structure such as an school, mall, or even when driving. That doesn’t mean mobile phone tracking isn’t available, but it does mean there are other ways of being a locator.
To track a cell phone involves several main methods of formulating mobile phone location. GPS Global Positioning System-Satellites, Triangulation, and CellID. All these technologies convert cell phones into mobile tracking systems. These systems can be viewed as Network Based, Handset Based or a Hybrid approach. GPS location is Handset based as it requires software applications installed on the mobile phone along with GPS hardware. Triangulation and CellID are Network Based as they use the equipment and information from the cellular provider. Hybrid systems combine methods to make best use of available information and to make location cell tracking faster.
GPS on cell phones is what people usually think of when considering locating mobile phones. GPS (Global Positioning System) using satellites is the most common and more accurate method of tracking. However GPS needs satellites to be in direct line of site of the handset.
It doesn’t work as well indoors or in dense cities.
If riding in a car the signals might not reach the smartphone. Some cell phones will store the last known GPS location, others might not.
Another issue with handset GPS location is the possibility of draining the battery. It is important to be able to remotely adjust the frequency of taking GPS position. Selecting real-time or periodic sampling affects both the resolution of finding location as well as battery life.
GPS receivers, whether in a handset, or a dedicated GPS tracking device, compute location by precisely timing the signals transmitted by GPS satellites. This information includes the time the message was transmitted, precise orbital information (the ephemeris), and the general system health and rough orbits of all GPS satellites (the almanac). GPS receivers sometimes take longer to become ready to navigate after it’s turned on because it must acquire some basic information in addition to capturing GPS satellite signals. This slow start is sometimes caused if the GPS cell phone has been turned off for days or weeks, or has been moved a far distance while turned off for. The GPS must update its almanac and ephemeris data and store it in memory. The GPS almanac is a set of data that every GPS satellite transmits. When a GPS receiver has current almanac data in memory, it can acquire signals and determine initial location more quickly.
GPS Hot Start is when the GPS enabled mobile phone recalls its last calculated location, the satellites that were in view before, the almanac information in memory, and tries to connect to the same satellites and compute a new position based upon the previous information. This is generally the quickest GPS lock but Hot Start only works if the phone is generally in the same location as when the GPS was last switched off.
GPS Warm Start is when the GPS enabled mobile phone recalls its last calculated position, and almanac used, but not which satellites were in range. It performs a reset and makes an attempt to lock onto satellite signals and calculates a new position.
The GPS receiver narrows the choice of which satellites tolook for because it stored its last known position and the almanac data helps identify which satellites are in range. The Warm Start will take more time than the Hot Start but not as long as a Cold Start.
With GPS Cold Start, the device dumps all the previous information, and attempts to locate satellites and achieve a GPS lock. This takes the longest because there is no known reference information. The GPS enabled cell phone receiver has to try to lock onto a satellite signal from any available satellites.
In order to have better GPS lock times cellular manufacturers and wireless operators introduced Assisted GPS technology. It downloads the ephemeris and helps triangulate the smartphone general position. GPS Receivers can get a faster lock in exchange for a few kilobytes of data transmission.
A-GPS improves location tracking functions of smartphones (and other connected devices) in two ways:
One method is by helping to obtain a faster “time to first fix” (TTFF). A-GPS acquires and storesinformation about satellite locationusing the cellular network so the position information does require to be downloaded from the the satellite.
Another method is by assisting position smartphones when GPS signals are weak or not available. As discussed above GPS satellite signals may be interfered with by tall buildings, and do not penetrate building interiors well. AGPS utilizes proximity to cellular towers to calculate location when GPS signals are not available.
If satellite signals are not available, or accuracy is less important than battery life, using Cell-ID is a useful alternative to GPS smartphone tracking. The position of the mobile phone can be determined by the cellular network cell id, which identifies the cell tower the phone is connected to. By knowing the location of this tower, then you can know approximately where the smartphone is. However, a tower can cover a huge area, from a few hundred meters, in high population areas, to several miles in lower density areas. This is why location CellID precision is less than than GPS accuracy. Nonetheless tracking using CellID still provides a very good substitute.
Another method of formulating smartphone position is Triangulation or Mobile Location Services (MLS). Cell Tower Triangulation uses signal analysis data to calculate the time it takes signals to travel from your phone to at least three cell towers to estimate position.
To comply with Federal Communications Commission guidelines, cellular phone companies must be able to provide authorities with cell phone latitude and longitude to an accuracy of 50 to 300 meters. Cell Tower Triangulation doesn’t always meet this requirement. By way of comparison commercially available GPS modules are able to obtain accuracy down to less than 10 meters. This depends upon many factors, as GPS signals are often very weak and are impacted by many environmental factors. With Mobile Location Services (MLS), the GSM cell network provider uses triangulation techniques to try to pinpoint the position of the handset, its accuracy is proven to be less than than that of GPS. MLS is also impacted by the same issues as GPS in the sense of the barriers affecting signal quality and the density of GSM towers to help in the triangulation effort. In rural areas location accuracy may be off as much as a mile.
It might be critical to consider how GPS location software programs handle the data and controls mobile phone settings. Having real time tracking on demand, or preferring to minimize battery use and data transmission should be offered. Typically the application determines the location with a GPS receiver and transmits the tracking data to a server through a data connection. The data connection to the server is usually made via the Internet. How often GPS samples are taken and how often and by what method the information is sent to the server affect usefulness and costs.
Keep in mind that there is a fundamental difference between smartphone GPS Tracking and Navigation. GPS phone tracking is normally associated with someone keeping records of either real-time or historical mobile phone position, while Navigation deals with the mobile phone user figuring out how to get from point A to point B.
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