Trace Mobile Location

Latest Update News About Trace Mobile Location: Mobile communications means more than just making a phone call while on the move.??? The newest cell phones include GPS locator features to track phone location.?? These features, along with others such as SMS message, web access and the capability to use other applications make cell phones great gadgets.? But GPS satellites aren't always available, such as when the handset is in a structure such as an house, shopping center, or even when driving.? That doesn't mean smartphone tracking isn't possible, but it does mean there are other methods of being a tracker.

To track a mobile phone involves several primary ways of determining? cell phone location.? GPS Global Positioning System-Satellites, Triangulation, and CellID.?? All these technologies transform mobile phones into mobile tracking systems.?? These systems can be viewed as Network Based, Handset Based or a Hybrid approach.? GPS location is Handset based as it needs software applications installed on the mobile phone? along with GPS hardware.? Triangulation and CellID are Network Based as they use the equipment and information from the wireless provider.? Hybrid systems combine methods to make best use of available data and to make position phone tracking faster.

GPS on cell phones is what people commonly think of when considering tracking smartphones.?? GPS (Global Positioning System) using satellites is the most well known and more accurate means of tracking.?? But GPS needs satellites to be in direct line of site of the mobile phone.

Sometimes heavy cloud cover and dense foliage impedes with reception.

If riding in a car the signals might not reach the mobile phone.? Some smartphones will retain the last known GPS location, others might not.

Another thing with mobile phone GPS tracking is the potential of wasting 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 accuracy of determining location along with battery life.

GPS receivers, whether in a handset, or a dedicated GPS tracking device, calculate location by precisely timing the signals transmitted by GPS satellites.? This information includes the time the message was transmitted, precise orbital information (the ephemeris), and the general system condition and estimated orbits of all GPS satellites (the almanac).? GPS receivers sometimes take a long time to become ready to navigate after it's turned on because it must acquire some basic information in addition to capturing GPS satellite signals. This delay can be caused if the GPS device? has been turned off for days or weeks, or has been transported a significant distance while unused 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 signals and find initial position faster.

GPS Hot Start is when the GPS enabled mobile phone? recalls its last calculated location, the satellites that were in range before, the almanac information in memory, and makes an attempt to find the same satellites and compute a new position based upon the previous information. This is usually the quickest GPS lock but Hot Start only works if the phone is in the same general area as when the GPS was last switched off.

GPS Warm Start is when the GPS enabled cell phone? keeps its last known position, and almanac used, but not which satellites were in range. It performs a reset and attempts? to find satellite signals and calculates 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 longer than the Hot Start but not as long as a Cold Start.

With GPS Cold Start, the device deletes all the previous data, and attempts to locate satellites and accomplish a GPS lock. This takes more time because there is no known reference information.? The GPS enabled cell phone?? receiver has to attempt to lock onto a satellite signal from any available satellites.

Assisted GPS, also known as A-GPS or AGPS, enhances the performance of standard GPS in devices connected to the cellular network.?? It downloads the ephemeris and helps triangulate the cell phone?? general position.? GPS Receivers can get a faster lock in exchange for a few kilobytes of data transmission.

A-GPS assists location tracking performance of cell phones (and other connected devices) in two ways:

The first way is by assisting to obtain a more rapid "time to first fix" (TTFF). AGPS acquires and archivesdata about satellite locationusing the cell network so the position information does require to be downloaded via the satellite.

The second method is by helping locate? devices 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. AGPS utilizes proximity to cellular towers to compute position 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 viable alternative to GPS cell phone tracking.? The position of the device can be determined by the cell network cell id, which identifies the cell tower the phone is connected to.?? By knowing the position of this tower, then you can know approximately where the handset? is.? However, a tower can cover a huge area, from a few hundred meters, in high density areas, to several kilometers in lower density areas. This is why location CellID precision is less than than GPS accuracy. Nevertheless tracking from CellID still provides a very useful alternative.

Another method of determining? cell phone location 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 determine location.

To comply with Federal Communications Commission guidelines, cellular phone companies must be able to provide authorities with cell phone 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 systems are able to obtain accuracy down to 3-10m.? This depends upon many factors, as GPS signals are often very weak and are impacted? by many environmental factors.?? With Mobile Location Services (MLS), the GSM cellular network provider utilizes triangulation algorithms to estimate the position of the handset, 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 strength and the density of GSM towers to assist in the triangulation effort.?? In rural areas position accuracy may be off as much as a mile.

It might be critical to consider how GPS location software programs handle the data and controls device settings.?? Having real time tracking on demand, or preferring to minimize battery use and data transmission should be offered.?? Generally 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 using the Internet.? How often GPS samples are taken and how often and by what method the information is sent to the server affect effectiveness and costs.

Consider that there is a fundamental difference between smartphone GPS Tracking and Navigation.? GPS cell phone tracking is normally related to a third-party keeping records of either real-time or historical mobile phone? location, while Navigation deals with the smartphone? user figuring out how to get from point A to point B.

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