Across the country and around the world, GPS tracking, cell phone GPS and mobile phone tracker software are getting a lot of attention from consumers, mobile phone companies and program developers. The latest smartphones have GPS locator functionality to track phone location. These features, along with others such as SMS texting, web access and the ability to utilize other software make mobile phones great gadgets. However GPS satellites aren’t always available, such as when the handset is in a building such as an office, shopping center, or even in an automobile. That doesn’t mean smartphone tracking isn’t possible, but it does mean there are other methods of being a tracker.
To track a cell phone involves several primary ways of determining 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 needs software applications installed on the mobile phone along with GPS hardware. Triangulation and CellID are Network Based as they use the equipment and data from the wireless provider. Hybrid systems combine methods to make best use of available information and to make position mobile phone tracking faster.
GPS on cell phones is what people usually think of when considering tracking smartphones. GPS (Global Positioning System) using satellites is the most popular and more accurate technology of tracking. But GPS needs satellites to be in direct line of site of the smartphone.
Sometimes thick cloud cover and thick foliage impedes with reception.
If sitting in an automobile the signals might not reach the cell phone. Some mobile phones will store the last known GPS location, others might not.
Another issue with mobile 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. Selecting real-time or periodic sampling affects both the accuracy of determining position as well as how long the battery will last.
GPS receivers, whether in a mobile phone, or a dedicated GPS tracking device, compute position by precisely timing the signals sent 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 longer 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 slow start is sometimes caused when the GPS mobile phone has been turned off for days or weeks, or has been transported a far 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 signals and calculate initial location faster.
GPS Hot Start is when the GPS enabled handset remembers its last known position, the satellites that were in view at the time, the almanac data in memory, and tries 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 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 view. It performs a reset and attempts to lock onto satellite signals and computes a new position.
The GPS receiver has a general idea of which satellites toseek because it kept its last known position and the almanac data helps identify which satellites are in range. The Warm Start will take longer than the Hot Start but not as long as a Cold Start.
With GPS Cold Start, the device dumps 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 smartphone receiver has to try to lock onto a satellite signal from any available satellites.
In order to have better GPS lock times mobile phone manufacturers and wireless operators developed 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 improves location tracking functions of smartphones (and other connected devices) in a couple of ways:
One 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 doesn’t require to be downloaded via the satellite.
The next way is by helping locate mobile phones when GPS signals are weak or blocked. As mentioned before GPS satellite signals may be impeded by tall buildings, and do not penetrate building interiors well. A-GPS utilizes proximity to cellular towers to calculate 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 useful alternative to GPS smartphone tracking. The location of the cell phone can be estimated 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 handset 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 via CellID still presents a very useful alternative.
Another method of determining smartphone 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 determine location.
To comply with Federal Communications Commission guidelines, cell phone companies must be able to provide authorities with mobile 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 modules are able to achieve accuracy down to 3-10m. This depends upon many factors, as GPS signals are often very weak and are impacted by many variables. With Mobile Location Services (MLS), the GSM cellular network provider utilizes triangulation techniques to determine the location of the mobile phone, its accuracy is proven to be much worse than that of GPS. MLS is also impacted by factors similar to GPS in the sense of the interference 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 may be important to consider how GPS location software programs handle the data and controls mobile phone 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 via the Internet. How often GPS samples are taken and how often and by what method the data is sent to the server impact effectiveness and costs.
Consider that there is a basic difference between handset GPS Tracking and Navigation. GPS cell phone tracking is normally associated with someone maintaining records of either real-time or historical handset location, while Navigation deals with the smartphone user figuring out how to get from point A to point B.
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