Chipmaker Broadcom, announced today that it will add Wi-Fi positioning to its portfolio of services. Broadcom will integrate, deploy and offer the Wi-Fi Positioning System developed by Skyhook Wireless which determines position by trianglulatng nearby cell towers rather than satellite-based GPS.
Their Assisted-GPS Server tracks satellites and provides GPS position data, eliminating the time to “acquire satellites”. This speeds TTFF (time to first fix) from minutes to seconds, and enables operation in urban & indoor environments where traditional GPS fails. Broadcom says their LBS services business currently supports over 20 million active customers in over 170 countries.
Using GPS alone to determine a location works well in outdoor environments, but buildings, trees can block the signal and satellite signals generally can’t be received indoors. That’s where cell and WiFi triangulation come in.
Broadcom will supplement Assisted GPS with the cellular and WiFi triangulation of Skyhook Wireless and integrate the Skyhook solution into its chipsets and services.
The Skyhook Wireless solution produces accurate location information by detecting Wi-Fi access points and comparing them against a known database of geo-located points. By combining its popular wireless chips with Skyhook’s positioning capabilities, Broadcom says it will enable mobile device and personal navigation device (PND) manufacturers to deploy a single, integrated hybrid positioning solution that better meets the needs and expectations of end users worldwide.
“We’ve made a significant investment in positioning systems such as GPS and AGPS, and in delivering integrated end-to-end platforms that improve the overall performance and user experience on mobile devices,” said Scott Pomerantz, Vice President & General Manager of Broadcom’s GPS line of business. “By integrating Wi-Fi positioning with our GPS, Wi-Fi and integrated combo chipsets, we are able to deliver a truly unique hybrid positioning system as part of a single platform.”
Skyhook’s Wireless hybrid positioning system (XPSTM) requires no new hardware, works indoors and outdoors, provides an instant location and is more accurate than current technologies in congested downtown areas. Loki uses XPS’ Wi-Fi Positioning capabilities to pinpoint physical location for location-based Web content - such as weather, directions, nearby entertainment venues.
Broadcom’s Wi-Fi positioning services may further position the company as a supplier of hosted LBS products and end-to-end solutions.
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