Providing location information for 911 cellular emergency calls has run into road blocks in the past. AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless used Enhanced Observed Time Difference (EOTD), to meet the so-called E911, or Enhanced 911, mandate. But the two carriers said the CPS technology wasn’t accurate enough to meet the FCC’s requirements.
T-Mobile USA disagrees, saying recent tests of the technology show it can hit the stringent guidelines, according to a company statement.
Cambridge Positioning Systems now says their Cursor Matrix offers sub-50 metre location accuracy – without costly handset modifications, GPS hardware or additional network equipment required by rival technologies.
Based on fully GSM standardised technology, Cursor Matrix will lower the cost barrier significantly for operators seeking to exploit the predicted $20bn high accuracy location based services market.
Sam Arditi, Vice President, Intel Wireless Communications and Computing Group, said: “We are very pleased to see CPS’s announcement as it continues to deliver advances on E-OTD location determination technology. More and more, consumers are looking forward to the benefits of high-accuracy location-based services on mobile devices running Intel Personal Internet Client Architecture building blocks like our new Intel PXA800F cellular processor.”
Enhanced Observed Time Difference (E-OTD) and Assisted Global Positioning System are two of the leading location technologies. Cambridge Positioning Systems uses E-OTD for Voicestream (T-Mobile) positioning information.
Their Cursor Matrix technology uses mathematical algorithms within a network server to provide precision location to either the handset user or third party such as the emergency services.
Gate5′s People Finder, on Java phone, PDAs and web browsers, activily and passively locates and tracks mobile devices. On Java-enabled phones the People Finder is implemented directly on the device as a MIDlet. Communication with the server is effected via GPRS. It is supported by all leading mobile phone manufacturers, and is already available in numerous products. The gate5 software supports Instant Messaging for contacting other users and real-time chatting.
City5 is more than a street map on a PDA. The system combines geographical maps with location-based content that can be updated dynamically via mobile Internet and personalized by users, and that provides innovative group communication capabilities- via SMS, WAP, web and e-mail.
The MapInfo miAware Developer Services Program is designed to help application developers and content providers make money, It’s a fully integrated platform with industry standard XML, developers can access all of the core mapping, geocoding, and location services needed.
Here’s a rundown of the most popular methods of position location capabilities being built into cellular networks from www.Unstrung.com.
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AOA, TDOA & TOA
Angle of Arrival, Time Difference of Arrival, and Time of Arrival E-OTD & A-FLT
Enhanced Observed Time Difference and Advanced Forward Link Trilateration GPS & A-GPS
Global Position System and Assisted Global Position System Multipath Fingerprint
Open access to abundant Location Services on the Web will not happen by accident. It will happen through an organized effort – the OpenLS Initiative. Open architecture for location services will be based on interfaces and protocols that support “Core Services” including:
- Gateway Services that integrate OpenLS location application services with position determination equipment.
- Directory services for searching yellow pages, green pages, travel guides, and so on.
- Route determination services for navigation.
- Geocode (address to X,Y) and reverse geocode (X,Y to address) services.
- Map/feature display services.
Location Services will depend on consistent integration of location services across different providers, technology platforms, application domains, and national regions
The Wireless Developer Network has more E-911 links and resources while my Mapping To Go article has more information and links on practical location-based services.
