Intro To Smartphone GPS Tracking

GPS on cell phones is what consumers generally consider when investigating tracking smartphones. GPS (Global Positioning System) utilizing satellites is the most common and more accurate technology of tracking. Still, GPS needs satellites to be in direct line of site of the cell phone. It doesn’t work really well indoors or in dense cities. In the event that the device is inside a structure, for instance your house, restaurant, or often sitting in an automobile the signals may well not get to the smartphone. Occasionally thick cloud cover and dense foliage impedes with signals. Some cell phones will hold on to the last identified GPS location, others may not.

A couple of important technical capabilities related to GPS cell tracking to think about include: Tracking Application “Persistence”. The tracking software on a handset typically must be enabled by the user. Depending on the device, the application may persist – remaining enabled when the phone is turned on after having been turned off. This feature can be particularly usefull if cell tracking is worthwhile and you do not want to require the person using the phone to turn tracking on and off. Another thing related to Tracking Application “Persistence” and cell phone GPS tracking is the potential of battery drain. 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 determining position as well as battery life. One typical method of minimizing battery and data use is Passive Tracking. Some mobile phone GPS tracking devices will store location data internally so that it can be downloaded when convenient. Also

known as “data logging,” which can keep location information even when the device has traveled outside the wireless network. Passive tracking is not a universal feature built-in to standard smartphone, but the most up-to-date mobile phones tend to have Passive tracking ability.

A lot of the discussion surrounding cell tracking, mobile GPS and mobile phone tracking software could be helped by a GPS Satellite primer.

GPS satellites broadcast signals from space that GPS receivers utilize to provide three-dimensional location (latitude, longitude, and altitude) plus precise time. GPS stands for Global Positioning System and is a system that is made up of 3 main segments: Space Segment, Control Segment and User Segment.

The GPS Space Segment includes twenty-four to thirty-two satellites that orbit the earth at a height of about 12,000 miles. These satellites are also known as as the GPS Constellation, and they are orbiting once every 12 hours. They are not parked over one spot, but rather move at over 7,000 mph. GPS satellites are solar powered but have battery reserve for when they are in the earth?s shadow. They are placed so that there are at least 4 satellites ?visible? from any point on earth. Small rocket boosters on each satellite keep them flying in the correct path. The satellites have a lifetime of about 10 years until all their fuel runs out.

GPS Satellites are not communications satellites. Geostationary or communications satellites use a higher altitude 22,300 miles above the equator. These satellites are used for weather forecasting, satellite TV, satellite radio and most other types of global communications. At exactly 22,000 miles above the equator, the earth’s force of gravity and centrifugal forces are offset and are in balance. This is the ideal location to place a communications satellite. The earth rotates at about 1,000 miles an hour, and because of their high earth orbit the earth-synchronous satellites need to move at about 7,000 mph to maintain position. This is just about the same speed as GPS satellites, but since stationary satellites are 10,000 miles further away they stay in place relative to the earth.

The GPS Control Segment is composed of Master Control Station, an Alternate Master Control Station, and numerous dedicated and shared Ground Antennas and Monitor Stations that work together to make sure the satellites are functioning to specification and the information they send to earth is accurate.

The GPS User Segment includes of GPS receivers taking the shape of devices and , laptops, in-car navigation devices and hand-held tracking units along with the people that use them, and the software applications that make them function.

GPS receivers, regardless of whether in a smartphone, or a spucific Portable gps tracking device, determine specific location through process of accurately timing the signals passed on by GPS satellites. This critical information contains the time the message was sent, precise orbital details (formally referenced as the ephemeris), along with the basic system state and estimated orbits of all GPS satellites (technically referred to as the almanac).

Another way of determining cell phone position is Triangulation or Mobile Location Services (MLS). Cell Tower Triangulation utilizes signal analysis data to compute the time it takes signals to travel from the mobile phone to at least three cell towers to calculate position.

With Mobile Location Services (MLS), the GSM cell network provider uses triangulation techniques to calculate the position of the cell phone, its accuracy is proven to be much worse than that of GPS. MLS is also affected by factors similar to GPS in the sense of the interference impeding signal quality and the density of GSM towers to help in the triangulation effort. In remote areas position accuracy may be off as much as a mile.

Intro To Smartphone GPS Tracking

Cell Phone GPS Tracking Basics

Solutions Designed for Emergency Response Can Be Employed for Tracking Smartphones. Cell tracking, cell phone GPS and cell phone tracker software applications are undoubtedly drawing curiosity from potential buyers, cellphone companies and program developers. The most up to date cell phones contain GPS locator functionality to track mobile phone location.

GPS receivers, regardless of whether inside of a handset, or simply a dedicated Portable gps tracking system, determine position by accurately timing the signals passed on by GPS satellites. This critical information provides the moment the message was transmitted, highly accurate orbital details (technically called the ephemeris), along with the general system state and projected orbits of all GPS satellites (technically referenced as the almanac). GPS receivers often take a long time to become ready to use after being turned on because it must acquire some basic information in addition to finding GPS satellite signals. This slow start is sometimes caused when the GPS smartphone has been unused for days or weeks, or has been transported a significant 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 capture satellite signal

s and find initial location more quickly.

GPS Hot Start is whenever the GPS enabled mobile phone keeps its last identified location, the satellites that were in view at the time, as well as the almanac information in memory, and attempts to connect to the same satellites and calculate a fresh position based upon the previous data. 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 turned off. GPS Warm Start is when the GPS enabled cell phone keeps its last known location, and almanac used, but not which satellites were in view. It resets and tries to connect to satellite signals and computes the latest location. The GPS receiver narrows the choice of which satellites toseek because it saved its last known position and the almanac data helps identify which satellites are within view. The Warm Start will need more time compared to Hot Start but not as much as a Cold Start. With GPS Cold Start, the device deletes all the previous data, and attempts to locate satellites a

nd attain a GPS lock. This takes longer than other methods since there is no known reference data. The GPS enabled mobile phone receiver has to try to lock onto a satellite transmission from any accessible satellites.

In order to get improved GPS lock times mobile phone manufacturers and telco operators introduced Assisted GPS technology. This downloads the ephemeris and helps triangulate the mobile phone basic position. GPS Receivers will get a faster lock in return for a few kilobytes of data transmission. Assisted GPS, generally known as A-GPS or AGPS, enhances the performance of standard GPS in smartphones connected to the cell network. In the United States Sprint, Nextel, Verizon Wireless, and Alltel all use AGPS. This is a method of utilizing the cellular network to accelerate finding of GPS satellites.

A-GPS assists location tracking performance of smartphones (as well as other connected devices) in a couple of ways:

The first method will be assisting to get a faster “time to first fix” (TTFF). AGPS acquires and stores data concerning satellite location using the cell network so the coordinates data does not need to be downloaded via the satellite.

The second method is by assisting locate cell phones when GPS signals are weak or blocked. Because GPS satellite signals may be interfered with by tall buildings, and do not pass through building interiors well A-GPS utilizes proximity to cellular towers to approximate location when GPS signals are not obtainable.

When satellite signals are not available, or accuracy is less important than battery life, utilizing Cell-ID is a good alternative to GPS smartphone location. The location of the mobile phone might be computed by the cellular network cell id, that pinpoints the cell tower the smartphone is connected to. By understanding the position of this tower, then you can know roughly where the device will be. But, a tower can cover an enormous area, from a few hundred meters, in high populationdensity zones, to a few kilometers in lower density zones. This is why location CellID accuracy is lower than GPS accuracy. Nonetheless monitoring via CellID still can provide a very viable alternative.

Another way of formulating mobile phone location is Triangulation or Mobile Location Services (MLS). Cell Tower Triangulation makes use of signal analysis data to calculate the time it takes signals traveling from your cellular phone to at least 3 cell towers to calculate location.

Cell Phone GPS Tracking Basics