Methods for Phone GPS Tracking and Mobile Location Raise the Question: Do you really know where they are?
Across the country and around the world, Cell tracking, cell phone GPS and mobile phone GPS track software are getting a lot of attention from consumers, mobile phone companies and program developers. The hottest mobiles have GPS position functionality to track phone location. These features, and others such as text messaging, web access and the ability to use other software make mobiles great gadgets. But GPS satellites aren’t always available, such as when the phone is in a building such as an office, mall, or even in an automobile. That doesn’t mean mobile phone locating isn’t available, but it does mean there are other ways of being a tracker.
To track a cell phone involves several primary ways of formulating mobile phone position. GPS Global Positioning System-Satellites, Triangulation, and CellID. All these technologies transform smartphones into mobile tracking devices. These systems can be viewed as Network Based, Handset Based or a Hybrid approach. GPS location is Handset based as it requires software programs installed on the smartphone in conjunction 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 phone tracking faster.
Mobile phone GPS is what people usually think of when considering tracking smartphones. GPS (Global Positioning System) using satellites is the most well known and more accurate means of tracking. However GPS needs satellites to be in direct line of site of the smartphone.
Sometimes thick cloud cover and dense trees interferes with signals.
If the handset is in a structure, for example your office, restaurant. Some mobile phones will keep the last known GPS location, others might not.
Another thing with cell phone GPS tracking is the possibility of draining the battery. It is important to be able to remotely adjust the frequency of taking GPS position. Choosing real-time or periodic sampling affects both the resolution of determining location as well as battery life.
GPS receivers, whether in a mobile phone, or a dedicated GPS tracking device, compute location by precisely timing the signals transmitted by GPS satellites. This data 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 often take longer to become ready to navigate after being turned on because it must acquire some basic information in addition to finding GPS satellite signals. This delay is sometimes caused if the GPS mobile phone has been unused 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 find initial location faster.
GPS Hot Start is when the GPS enabled smartphone recalls its last calculated location, the satellites that were in range at the time, the almanac data in memory, and makes an attempt to connect to the same satellites and determine a new position based upon the previous information. This is usually 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 device keeps its last known location, and almanac used, but not which satellites were in range. It resets and attempts to obtain satellite signals and computes a new position.
The GPS receiver has a general idea of which satellites tolook for because it stored its last known position and the almanac data helps identify which satellites are visible in the sky. 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 deletes 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 smartphone receiver has to attempt to lock onto a satellite signal from any available satellites.
In order to have better GPS lock times cellular manufacturers and wireless operators developed Assisted GPS technology. It downloads the ephemeris and helps triangulate the cell phone general position. GPS Receivers can get a faster lock at the expense of a few kilobytes of data transmission.
A-GPS improves location tracking functions of smartphones (and other connected devices) in two ways:
One way is by assisting to obtain a faster “time to first fix” (TTFF). A-GPS acquires and storesinformation about the location of satellitesusing the cell network so the position information does need to be downloaded via the satellite.
Another way is by helping position cell phones when GPS signals are weak or blocked. As discussed above GPS satellite signals may be impeded by tall buildings, and do not penetrate building interiors well. A-GPS uses proximity to cellular towers to compute 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 good alternative to GPS smartphone location. The location of the smartphone can be calculated by the cellular network cell id, that identifies the cell tower the phone is connected to. By knowing the position 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 accuracy is lower than GPS accuracy. Nevertheless location from CellID still provides a very useful alternative.
Another way of determining device 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 location.
To comply with Federal Communications Commission guidelines, cell phone companies must be able to provide authorities with handset latitude and longitude to an accuracy of 50 to 300 meters. Cell Tower Triangulation doesn’t always meet this requirement. For comparison commercially available GPS modules are able to achieve accuracy down to 3-10m. This depends upon many factors, as GPS signals are often very weak and are affected by many variables. With Mobile Location Services (MLS), the GSM cellular network provider utilizes triangulation techniques to compute the position of the cell phone, its accuracy is proven to be less than than that of GPS. MLS is also affected by factors similar to GPS in the sense of the barriers affecting signal quality and the density of GSM towers to assist in the triangulation effort. In remote areas position accuracy may be off as much as a mile.
Generally speaking it comes down to what location tracking system is available, and the requirements for accuracy. Hybrid methods are emerging that use various techniques in tandem to provide best available location given available resources. 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 impact effectiveness and costs.
Consider that there is a basic difference between mobile phone GPS Tracking and Navigation. GPS mobile phone tracking is usually associated with a third-party maintaining records of either real-time or historical cell phone position, while Navigation deals with the mobile phone user determining how to get from point A to point B.
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