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Networks & Infrastructure
New location based applications require High Accuracy Positioning
Emergency mobile location, national security and law enforcement all depend on new technology
by Therese Cory, M2M Correspondent
High Accuracy Positioning is becoming an increasingly critical component of wireless applications where location is of high importance, e.g., tracking or finding places of interest nearby. Current available technology posts accuracy ranging from several kilometres or miles to a few metres or feet. Accuracy depends on the positioning technology and the density of phone towers in the vicinity of the phone/person/item being located and/or tracked.
There are three main types of positioning technologies: Cell-ID or enhanced Cell-ID; satellite based positioning and network based positioning technologies.
Cell-ID (or enhanced cell ID) positioning is inherent in all wireless networks but is least accurate overall. It works with any cell phone and needs no additional equipment on the handset or in the network. Accuracy depends on the proximity of the phone to the cell tower; hence an accuracy of around 200 metres (219 yards) at best is only achievable in urban areas.
GPS and A-GPS (Assisted GPS) work in conjunction with the GPS fleet of satellites. It can provide accuracy to within a few metres but mobile phones need a receiver installed. While accuracy is high open skies, it does not work as well in urban areas and does not work at all indoors.
U-TDOA (Uplink Time Difference of Arrival) is claimed by its proponents to be the best network-based positioning technology overall for applications requiring high accuracy coupled with reliability; it works with all types of phone and in all conditions, even when the phone is idle. However, wireless operators must install special equipment in their networks. At present, U-TDOA seems to be the preferred positioning technology for public safety related applications and services (e.g., e911 in the United States) as it works in many places where A-GPS does not.
Emergency Mobile Location – e112
In the United States it is now law that every mobile phone can be located in an emergency when subscribers dial the emergency number 911. Here TruePosition, a supplier of high accuracy location solutions and the developer of U-TDOA, supplies AT&T and T-Mobile with the technology that underlies their e911 (emergency mobile location) service.
Europe now has a working pan-European emergency number 112, to which callers may be connected from fixed and mobile phones free of charge. However, unlike the United States, not all member states have yet implemented the e112 mobile emergency location facility. Only one in four of European citizens are aware of the 112 pan-European emergency number. Moreover, a pan-European number must deal with a multiplicity of languages compared with the United States. A recent Eurobarometer survey, conducted on behalf of the European Commission, found that 28% of callers have language problems when they call 112 from outside their own country. In February of this year, the European Commission moved to encourage national authorities to make the 112 service more multilingual.
eCall
eCall is an enhancement of e112. It is a European Commission initiative designed to save lives on the roads. An embedded SIM card in a vehicle initiates an emergency call when the driver is involved in an accident and is unable to call for help. The system automatically contacts the emergency services via GSM/UMTS and automatically transmits essential data including time, location, direction of travel (important if the vehicle is on a highway) and vehicle identification, hence speeding up response times for the rescue services.
The main inhibitors to the adoption of eCall Europe-wide appear to be cost of upgrading the emergency call centres, as well as the practical difficulties of getting all the participants in the chain to collaborate. In contrast to e112, these include not only network operators and the call centres, but also the automobile and device makers and the national administrations within the European Union (EU) member states. The emergency call centres in particular must agree upon common standards to enable the harmonised development and deployment of the system, thereby ensuring that they are equipped to handle eCall.
At present, the adoption of eCall by member states is fragmented and on a voluntary basis only. Outside of this, callers may only make contact with the call centres via voice. However, in August, EU Commissioner Viviane Reading threatened legislation to push through eCall if no progress was made in rolling out the system by the end of 2009.
In September, the GSM Association signed a memorandum of understanding with the Commission supporting the rollout of eCall. Robhindra Mangtani, GSM Association Senior Director told M2MZone that as the wireless network is a key component of eCall’s infrastructure, it was only natural that GSM operators would want to get involved. (The European Association of Automobile Manufacturers have also signed up for eCall). Moreover, the EC’s intervention will help jump start eCall and encourage the different participants to get equally involved in creating a framework for its implementation and facilitate co-operation. Furthermore, if eCall was installed in every new vehicle, this would open the door for operators to offer a new added Telematics services, such as in-car mapping.
Jasper Wireless’ Senior Director of Product Marketing Macario Namie agreed, saying that a SIM card in every new car will bring in revenues to operators without making major investments. Moreover, the cost of embedded in-car devices will come down with mass adoption. However, the M2M supply chain is in his view a complex ecosystem where the network is almost the only common denominator. Unless the design of hardware components and specialist applications is done with consideration of the end to end supply and delivery chain, M2M as a whole will not move forward.
National Security and Law Enforcement
The use of mobile phones has become more widespread not only in everyday use by the public but also by criminals, e.g., for communication between terrorists and the setting off of explosive devices. A number of useful mobile applications have been available for some time, aimed at individual consumers and company employees. These involve tracking of children and vulnerable persons, as well as fugitives, victims of abduction and criminal suspects. They require increasingly higher accuracy to pinpoint the subject or object being tracked -- the higher the accuracy, the greater value the application to both users and suppliers.
TruePosition is one supplier currently concentrating on supplying national and personal security solutions to government and law enforcement agencies in the United States and beyond. In response to what they perceive to be a huge growth in demand for new applications relating to national security and law enforcement, TruePosition recently signed a contract to supply its location platform to an (unnamed) overseas government for national security purposes.
TruePosition has also combined its location platform with specialist software to collect and analyse telecoms network data in a new product called LOCINT. This product transforms wireless location and other information into actionable intelligence for use in applications such as intrusion detection, geofencing (perimeter protection) and infrastructure protection. The use of network data has long been used by wireless operators to analyse subscriber behavior and detect abnormal patterns of phone use. However, the company claims that LOCINT is unique in adding location information to network data such that it can be analysed in a new way, enabling in turn new high value applications requiring high accuracy.
Dominic Li, VP marketing and portfolio management of TruePosition told M2M Zone that wireless operators have been slow to see the potential of developing such specialist services for targeting the government sector, as historically they have concentrated first on the consumer then on the enterprise market. Moreover in Europe, emergency location is on the way to becoming mandatory as it is in the United States. Therefore, operators that are first to develop high accuracy commercial services proactively rather than reactively to regulatory demand will capture the lion’s share of a potentially huge new market.
More on this topic:
Telematics projects are burgeoning in Europe
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