Application of Location Technologies to Services (Matrix/Table)

SMLC for Tier II–III Carriers

The determined efforts of U.S. wireless operators have contributed significantly to improve E911 responsive- ness in emergency situations. Andrew Geometrix systems installed by operators in their wireless networks have played a significant role by providing high-accuracy caller location information for emergency responders. Andrew has added to its product line a new  version of its wireless location system to meet the requirements of smaller carriers operating in any market. The new SMLC, available now, has been developed to meet the E911 and commercial LBS location application and economic objectives of smaller wireless operators.

 Product Features and Benefits Include:

• Positioning Technologies
• Cell/Sector ID
• Enhanced-Cell ID (TA/NMR)
• Assisted GPS (A-GPS) -MS Based and MS- Assisted Versions with WARN Interface/Interoperability
• 3GPP Compliant Lb/SIGTRAN
• 3GPP Compliant Lb/MTP3
• SUN Netra 210 based HW Platform
• SMLC configuration only
• Scalable Capacity
• Transactions Per Second: Up to 30 TPS (10 TPS for A-GPS)
• Number of Cell Sites Supported: Up to 30,000 Cell sites
• SS7 Capacity: 8 LSL MTP3 + 32 M3UA associations
• Full OAM Support (Billing, Alarms, Logs, Performance Metrics)
• High Reliability

 Compact MLC Platform Components:

• Application Processor Units: - SUN Solaris Servers
• OAM/DB: - SUN Netra 210 Server
• Internal IP Switching Performed
• IP Switch AS2 (L3–L7)
• IP Switch T5C (L2)
• Console Services—LX8040 Terminal Server
• Remote Access via Contivity 1100
• Power Source: - Astec EBIPs

 Supported Positioning Technologies:

• Cell/Sector ID Positioning
• Enhanced Cell ID Positioning
• Employs Timing Advance and Network Measurement Report

• Assisted GPS (A-GPS) Positioning (Optional)
• MS-Based A-GPS
• MS-Assisted A-GPS
• Wide Area Reference Network Interface for Assistance Data

Geometrix® MLC Commercial Location-Based Services

Mobile network operators and third parties can offer to enterprise and consumer customers commercial value-added services that require knowing the position of the mobile and/or the position of either other callers or fixed assets. For example, enterprise users may want to know the precise location of inventory, goods, or other assets in transit or of key personnel. Dispatchers can be assisted by tracking delivery vehicles without driver intervention. Parents may want to be able to track the whereabouts of their children. Mobile consumers may want to know "Where is the nearest ATM (to where I am currently located)?" or "How far away is my friend XYZ?" or "What are the traffic conditions in my vicinity?" Authorities may want to be able to track the locations of probationers. Geometrix MLC can provide the most cost effective means of location support for location-enhanced services, employing the location technology best suited to each application.

Geometrix® — Accurate Wireless Location for Public Safety and LBS

Accurate, Reliable and Proven
Andrew’s Geometrix system is the ideal choice to locate emergency callers for the most critical location-sensitive application - Public safety. Andrew was a pioneer in wireless location, and our Geometrix was the first network system to fully comply with strict U.S. government accuracy requirements for emergency caller location. Since 2001, Geometrix has been locating mobile users for critical location-based applications worldwide. Operators large and small have realized the benefits of installing Andrew’s Geometrix wireless location systems.

Geometrix can provide operators a direct path to E911 regulatory compliance and offers flexible, easy migration to network operator revenue-generating commercial LBS services. Proven accuracy and built-in redundancy is designed into Geometrix to serve Tier I, II, and III wireless networks in urban, suburban, and rural settings. From a single, reliable hardware platform, operators can select their choice of location technology(ies)to suit the applications they deploy: A-GPS, Enhanced Cell ID, Cell ID, and U-TDOA.

For public safety applications, Andrew offers both A-GPS and U-TDOA location technologies. Large and small operators have successfully used both Geometrix technologies to meet demanding FCC mandates for emergency caller location. Geometrix provides rapid, accurate locations under the most difficult circumstances, with backup available to add extra assurance.

One System – Full Wireless Location Flexibility
Andrew’s Geometrix is the state-of-the-art mobile location solution that provides optimum support for all location-enhanced applications, present and future. Our full range of caller location technologies can put wireless networks on the road to regulatory compliance while providing operators the opportunity to gain additional revenue through location based services. Andrew’s Geometrix supports both handset-based and network-based locating solutions. In addition to Control Plane technologies, Andrew has now included the option of Secure User Plane (SUPL) location. A shared hardware platform further enhances the cost-effectiveness built into all Geometrix systems and provides the ability to implement full-functionality GMLC, SMLC, and SAS, and SLP nodes in a single equipment package.

Handset-Based and Network-Based Location
Location-sensitive services or applications, including Public Safety, each present unique requirements for location accuracy, latency, reliability, cost tolerance, and other parameters. Experts agree that no single location technology can provide a “best fit” for all LBS applications. That’s why Andrew has built into Geometrix the ability to provide multiple location methods. For Public Safety, Andrew offers operators the choice of handset-based A-GPS and network-based U-TDOA caller location methods. Andrew has extensive experience with both technologies and has implemented them in numerable networks.

Only Geometrix can apply the optimum locating methods to match an operator’s deployment plan for LBS. Geometrix supports all proven locating technologies: U-TDOA, A-GPS, E-CID, and CID. By having a complete selection of locating options deployable in one location system, operators can benefit from the most effective cost and performance relationship for their LBS offerings.

LBS Solutions
Andrew’s Geometrix partners offer proven enterprise and consumer wireless location applications to generate new revenue; asset management, package tracking, work force management, service dispatch, child finder, friend finder,maps, directions, games and more. Our experts can help you deploy market-specific and application-specific location technologies with adjustable capacity requirements that can grow with your subscriber needs.

Operators have recognized Andrew’s wireless caller location superiority and have selected Geometrix as their location system of choice more than any other competing product.

Geometrix® - Public Safety Applications

Uplink Time Difference of Arrival (U-TDOA) Technology

U-TDOA, or Uplink Time Difference of Arrival, determines a mobile's location by comparing and calculating the difference in time required for a target mobile's signal to reach location measurement units (LMUs) installed at different receiving locations, usually base station sites.

When a mobile to be located (the target mobile) transmits, the arrival time of the target mobile's signal is recorded by a U-TDOA Geometrix location measurement unit (LMU) at each base station that can receive the signal. Since the mobile's signal travels at a constant speed (the speed of light), when the arrival time of the signal is compared for any two sites (for example, site A received the signal at time X, site B received at time Y, the difference being |X -Y|), it is a straightforward calculation to determine the mobile's relative position to each site. When plotted, this relationship describes an imaginary hyperbola (a broad curve) in space. The target mobile is located somewhere on this curve, although additional information is required to determine precisely where. When the same calculation is made involving measurements from a third base station site, calculating the difference of arrival times between either sites A and C or between sites B and C, an independent, positional hyberbola can be described. The point at which the two hyperbolas (A-B and B-C) intersect is the location of the target mobile.

Since the intersection of at least two position hyperbolas are needed to determine a target mobile's location, U-TDOA requires measurement of the target mobile's signal at a minimum of three LMUs (each located at a different BTS site). In order to help assure reception and measurement, Geometrix LMUs employ sophisticated processing that increases their ability to capture and measure weak signals from very distant mobiles. The signal strength required for measurement by Geometrix LMUs can be significantly lower than the signal strength required b y the BTS itself to support communication; Geometrix LMUs are about 20 db more sensitive than the underlying mobile network is. The result of this increased sensitivity in typical Geometrix installations is the target mobile's signalcan usually be received and measured at between six and eight Geometrix LMU-equipped sites. Geometrix performs additional processing to screen LMU measurements for quality, then uses the highest quality measurements in the position determining calculations.

In addition to location accuracy, the key benefits of Geometrix U-TDOA are its ability to locate any mobile handset, its ability to perform at a high level in a wide range of operating conditions and environments, and its ability to obtain its RF measurements utilizing the receive antennas already in place at BTS sites. U-TDOA requires initial investment to equip designated BTS sites with LMUs. While U-TDOA can provide more than sufficient throughput capacity for many applications, it is by its nature not as scalable as some other locating methods.

1. Location request originated by MSC or LBS application
2. SMLC initiates request to appropriate LMUs to measure signal TOAs from target mobile
3. LMUs measure TOA from target mobile, forward measurements to SMLC
4. SMLC calculates mobile's position
5. Location Center forwards position data to GMLC (through BSC and MSC)
6. GMLC forwards position data to LBS application

Geometrix® - Public Safety Applications

Angle of Arrival (AOA) Supplement to U-TDOA

Although infrequently used, Angle of Arrival (AOA) is a Geometrix capability that can be implemented under special, very demanding circumstances to supplement U-TDOA in areas where target mobile signals can only be received by two location measurement units (LMUs). AOA uses a line-of-bearing methodology to establish the direction (or angle) from which the target mobile's signal is received at BTS sites equipped with AOA-capable Geometrix LMUs and associated directionsensing antennas. Sites requiring AOA are identified during the Geometrix system design process.

With AOA, LMUs at two BTS sites must receive and measure the mobile's signal. A Geometrix Serving Mobile Location Center (SMLC, or SAS for UMTS) is capable of using both AOA and U-TDOA data simultaneously to determine mobile positions. That ability can minimize the number of sites that need to be equipped for AOA. AOA is significantly more costly to implement than is U-TDOA, primarily due to the cost of the supplemental direction-sensitive antennas and associated cabling.

As stated earlier, U-TDOA systems rarely require AOA supplementation. Geometrix uses AOA only in conjunction with and as a supplement to U-TDOA in extremely difficult reception conditions. The Geometrix SMLC/SAS calculates the intersections of AOA line(s) of bearing with the U-TDOA position hyperbola(s) to calculate the mobile's position. AOA has been used in a small percentage of rural Geometrix LMU sites for public safety location support.

Geometrix® E911 Advantages

Full Set of Mobile Location Techniques Supported
Geometrix allows operators to match the best locating technology(ies) to their requirements, instead of settling for inadequate location methods that don't really meet requirements.

Geometrix can support mobile networks that use multiple technologies, such as GSM, UMTS, CDMA, TDMA, 1xRTT, and AMPS. Geometrix can transition among network technologies as networks upgrade, expand, and add new capabilities.

Meets Stringent Performance Requirements
Geometrix meets or exceeds US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) E911 Phase II performance requirements. Geometrix performs well in all important dimensions: location accuracy, yield, speed of location, and consistency across multiple operating environments. More wireless operators have selected Geometrix for E911 Phase II caller location than any competing system.

Extensive Mobile Location Systems Experience
Andrew's Geometrix was the first high-accuracy, FCC E911 Phase II-compliant location system in commercial service. Andrew supplies Geometrix to more then a dozen national, regional, and local wireless operators, more than any competing location system. Geometrix was the first GSM-capable location system to be independently certified for E911 compliance and is the only high-accuracy system implemented by Tier I, II, and III operators.

Backed by the Strength of Andrew Wireless Solutions
Andrew Corporation is a leading supplier of wireless equipment to the global telecommunications infrastructure market. Andrew's divisions produce a broad line of wireless infrastructure products from ISO 9001 certified manufacturing facilities. Andrew's Network Solutions division produces Geometrix components in its Virginia manufacturing facility.

Andrew Corporation combines over 100 years of wireless engineering experience with the broadest, most technologically advanced product line in the wireless telecommunications equipment industry.

Public Safety - FCC Requirements

FCC Carrier Plan Requirements - September 14, 2000

FCC Wireless E911 Mandate

Background on E911
Phase I of the US Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) E911 rules requires that wireless operators provide to Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP) the mobile number of each wireless 911 call, allowing the PSAP dispatcher to attempt to call back to the mobile if the call is disconnected or to obtain additional information. Phase I also requires mobile operators to provide to PSAPs the location of the cell site that handled the origination of each 911 call. Both the call-back number and the cell site location are to be transmitted by the operator so that they arrive at the PSAP at approximately the same time as the call.

Phase II of the FCC's wireless E911 rules requires mobile operators to provide to PSAPs the calling number and the caller's physical location within an average distance tolerance of about 100 meters.

Deployment Requirements
Network-based Solutions
Mobile operators that select a network-based E911 Phase II solution must implement a system to cover 50 percent of callers within six months after a PSAP's request for E911 Phase II location data, and 100 percent of callers within 18 months after the original PSAP request.

Handset-based Solutions
Mobile operators that select a handset-based E911 Phase II solution must deploy ALI (automatic location identification)-capable handsets to their customers on a sliding implementation schedule. For carriers electing a handset-base E911 Phase II solution, 95% of all customers are to be equipped with ALI-capable handsets by December 31, 2005.

Source: FCC News, September 16, 1999.

Geometrix® Proven Wireless Location System for Security and Public Safety

Accurate, Reliable and Proven
Andrew’s Geometrix Wireless Location capabilities are ideal for security and public safety applications. Since 2001 Geometrix has been serving mobile network operators in thousands of base station installations around the world. Network operators realize the when reliability, accuracy, and speed are critical, Andrew sets the standard.

No Handset Replacement
Geometrix can locate all existing handsets, operates unobtrusively, is easy to install and doesn’t interrupt service. Network operators prefer Geometrix because it doesn’t require regular administration, maintenance, or unstable RF databases. Geometrix operation is transparent to mobile users; normal calling procedures remain intact and caller locations take place without the interaction of wireless users.

A Complete Solution
Andrew’s Geometrix wireless location system is a complete turnkey location solution and includes a needs evaluation, system design, performance modeling, installation, testing, and support services.

Uniquely Qualified for Security Support
Clearly it is critical that the right location technologies are used to meet the accuracy requirements for National Security and Public Safety wireless location applications. Nothing matches or surpasses Andrew’s Uplink Time Difference of Arrival (U-TDOA) technology for location accuracy, reliability, and speed. Unlike other location systems whose performance can be compromised when callers move indoors or into other obstructed locations, Geometrix maintains its high yield, accuracy, and location speed under all conditions.

Features
Geometrix security features include several enhancements for tracking, monitoring, and analyzing target mobiles.

• Live Site Geofencing allows important “Areas of Interest” (A0A) to be defined, edited and analyzed on a map to determine if a target mobile enters the specified AOA.
• Target List Tracking allows users to track and monitor specific “target” mobile handsets and receive alerts when these target mobiles enter a specific AOA.
• Alerts of Foreign Mobiles allow users to receive alerts whenever a target mobile registered in another country joins a mobile network.
• Target Calling Pattern Analysis allows users to track the calling patterns of target mobiles.
• Target Mobile Tracking Analysis allows users to track a particular mobile’s location over time. Users can also overlay multiple mobiles during the same time frame to analyze special relationships between target mobiles.
• Public Event Proximity Analysis allows users to identify and geolocate all mobile users in the vicinity of a specific location at a specific time.
• Emergency Broadcast SMS allows users to send broadcast alerts in the form of an SMS message to every mobile user in the vicinity of an emergency situation.

Complete Mobile Location – Unmatched Flexibility
The Geometrix advantage is the flexibility it offers network operators. Geometrix can be specifically tailored to not only support the U-TDOA location process, but can be upgraded and supplemented to incorporate additional locating technologies to increase coverage, or to augment capacity.

The Geometrix comprehensive location system can also allow network operators to offer mobile subscribers commercial LBS services—supporting operator deployment into the revenue generating LBS market.