Methods for Cell Phone Tracking and Cell Phone Location raise the question: Do you really know where they are?

Different Approaches to Being a Mobile Phone GPS Tracker Raise the Question:  Do you really know where they are?

Mobile communications means more than just placing a phone call while on the move.    The most recent cell phones include GPS locator features to track phone location.   These features, along with others such as text messaging, internet access and the capability to utilize other software make mobile phones great gadgets.  But GPS satellites aren’t always available, such as when the handset is in a building such as an office, mall, or even when driving.  That doesn’t mean mobile phone tracking isn’t possible, but it does mean there are other ways of being a locator.

To track a mobile phone involves several main methods of determining  mobile phone location.  GPS Global Positioning System-Satellites, Triangulation, and CellID.   All these technologies convert smartphones 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 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 position cell phone tracking faster.  

Mobile phone GPS is what people usually think of when looking at tracking cell phones.   GPS (Global Positioning System) using satellites is the most common and more accurate technology of tracking.   However GPS needs satellites to be in direct line of site of the cell phone. 

It doesn’t work particularly well indoors or in dense cities. 

If the phone is in a building, for example your office, mall.  Some smartphones will keep the last known GPS location, others might not.  

Another issue with mobile phone GPS tracking is the possibility of wasting the battery.  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 finding location as well as battery life.  

GPS receivers, whether in a mobile phone, or a dedicated GPS tracking device, determine position 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 estimated orbits of all GPS satellites (the almanac).  GPS receivers sometimes take longer to become ready to navigate after it’s turned on because it must acquire some basic information in addition to finding GPS satellite signals. This delay can be caused when the GPS device  has been unused 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 acquire signals and determine initial position faster. 

GPS Hot Start is when the GPS enabled handset  recalls its last known position, the satellites that were in range at the time, the almanac data in memory, and tries to obtain the same satellites and determine a new position based upon the previous data. 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 turned off. 

GPS Warm Start is when the GPS enabled smartphone  keeps its last known position, 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 narrows the choice of which satellites toseek because it kept 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 accomplish a GPS lock. This takes the longest 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. 

In order to have better GPS lock times mobile phone manufacturers and network operators introduced Assisted GPS technology.   It downloads the ephemeris and helps triangulate the smartphone   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 smartphones (and other connected devices) in a couple of ways:

One method is by assisting to obtain a more rapid “time to first fix” (TTFF). AGPS acquires and storesdata about satellite positionusing the cellular network so the position information does require to be downloaded via the satellite. 

The next way is by helping position  handsets when GPS signals are weak or blocked.  As discussed above GPS satellite signals may be interfered with by tall buildings, and do not penetrate building interiors well. Assisted GPS 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 useful substitute to GPS mobile phone tracking.  The location of the device can be calculated by the cell network cell id, that identifies the cell tower the phone is using.   By knowing the position of this tower, then you can know approximately where the cell phone  is.  However, a tower can cover a huge area, from a few hundred meters, in high population areas, to several kilometers in lower density areas. This is why location CellID precision is lower than GPS accuracy. Nonetheless tracking from CellID still presents a very good substitute.    

Another method of determining  mobile phone 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 position.   

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.  By way of 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 environmental factors.   With Mobile Location Services (MLS), the GSM cell network provider utilizes triangulation techniques to estimate the location of the mobile phone, its accuracy is proven to be less than than that of GPS.  MLS is further impacted by the same issues as  GPS in the sense of the barriers affecting signal quality and the density of GSM towers to help in the triangulation effort.   In remote areas location accuracy may be off as much as a mile. 

It might be important 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.   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 using the Internet.  How often GPS samples are taken and how often and by what method the data is sent to the server affect usefulness and costs. 

Keep in mind that there is a basic difference between smartphone GPS Tracking and Navigation.  GPS mobile phone tracking is normally related to someone keeping records of either real-time or historical mobile phone  position, while Navigation deals with the cell phone  user determining how to get from point A to point B.

A really great software package that includes remote control of handset settings, and combines Cell Phone Tracking  with SMS text message, Call Log,  MMS multi-media message monitoring, and a web account for storage and review is PhoneBeagle.  

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