INTRODUCTION 1

Mobile phone tracking refers to the attaining of the current position of a mobile phone, stationary or moving. Localization may occur either via multilateration of radio signals between (several) radio towers of the network and the phone, or simply via GPS. To locate the phone using multilateration of radio signals, it must emit at least the roaming signal to contact the next nearby antenna tower, but the process does not require an active call. GSM is based on the signal strength to nearby antenna masts.[1] Mobile positioning, which includes location based service that discloses the actual coordinates of a mobile phone bearer, is a technology used by telecommunication companies toapproximate where a mobile phone, and thereby also its user (bearer), temporarily resides. The more properly applied term locating refers to the purpose rather than a positioningprocess. Such service is offered as an option of the class of location-based services

Mobile phone tracking

Mobile phone tracking refers to the attaining of the current position of a mobile phone, stationary or moving. Localization may occur either via multilateration of radio signals between (several) radio towers of the network and the phone, or simply via GPS. To locate the phone using multilateration of radio signals, it must emit at least the roaming signal to contact the next nearby antenna tower, but the process does not require an active call. GSM is based on the signal strength to nearby antenna masts.[1] Mobile positioning, which includes location based service that discloses the actual coordinates of a mobile phone bearer, is a technology used by telecommunication companies toapproximate where a mobile phone, and thereby also its user (bearer), temporarily resides. The more properly applied term locating refers to the purpose rather than a positioningprocess. Such service is offered as an option of the class of location-based services (LBS).[2]

Technology
The technology of locating is based on measuring power levels and antenna patterns and uses the concept that a mobile phone always communicates wirelessly with one of the closestbase stations, so knowledge of the location of the base station implies the cell phone is nearby. Advanced systems determine the sector in which the mobile phone resides and roughly estimate also the distance to the base station. Further approximation can be done byinterpolating signals between adjacent antenna towers. Qualified services may achieve a precision of down to 50 meters in urban areas where mobile

traffic and density of antenna towers (base stations) is sufficiently high. Rural and desolate areas may see miles between base stations and therefore determine locations less precisely. GSM localization is the use of multilateration to determine the location of GSM mobile phones, or dedicated trackers,[3][4] usually with the intent to locate the user.[2] Localization-Based Systems can be broadly divided into:

Network-based Handset-based SIM-based Hybrid

1.Network-based
Network-based techniques utilize the service provider's network infrastructure to identify the location of the handset. The advantage of network-based techniques (from mobile operator's point of view) is that they can be implemented non-intrusively, without affecting the handsets. The accuracy of network-based techniques varies, with cell identification as the least accurate and triangulation as moderately accurate, and newer "Forward Link" timing methods as the most accurate. The accuracy of network-based techniques is both dependent on the concentration of base station cells, with urban environments achieving the highest possible accuracy, and the implementation of the most current timing methods. One of the key challenges of network-based techniques is the requirement to work closely with the service provider, as it entails the installation of hardware and software within the operator's infrastructure. Often, a legislative framework, such as E911, would need to be in place to compel the cooperation of the service provider as well as to safeguard the privacy of the information.

2.Handset-based
Handset-based technology requires the installation of client software on the handset to determine its location. This technique determines the location of the handset by computing its location by cell identification, signal strengths of the home and neighboring cells, which is continuously sent to the carrier. In addition, if the handset is also equipped with GPS then significantly more precise location information is then sent from the handset to the carrier. The key disadvantage of this technique (from mobile operator's point of view) is the necessity of installing software on the handset. It requires the active cooperation of the mobile subscriber as well as software that must be able to handle the different operating systems of the handsets. Typically, smartphones, such as one

based on Symbian, Windows Mobile,Windows Phone, BlackBerry OS, iPhone, or Android, would be able to run such software. One proposed work-around is the installation of embedded hardware or software on the handset by the manufacturers, e.g. E-OTD. This avenue has not made significant headway, due to the difficulty of convincing different manufacturers to cooperate on a common mechanism and to address the cost issue. Another difficulty would be to address the issue of foreign handsets that are roaming in the network.

3.SIM-based
Using the SIM in GSM and UMTS handsets, it is possible to obtain raw radio measurements from the handset.[5][6] The measurements that are available can include the serving Cell ID, round trip time and signal strength. The type of information obtained via the SIM can differ from what is available from the handset. For example, it may not be possible to obtain any raw measurements from the handset directly, yet still obtain measurements via the SIM.

4.Hybrid
Hybrid positioning systems use a combination of network-based and handset-based technologies for location determination. One example would be some modes of Assisted GPS, which can both use GPS and network information to compute the location. Both types of data are thus used by the telephone to make the location more accurate (i.e. A-GPS). Alternatively tracking with both systems can also occur by having the phone attain his GPS-location directly from the satellites, and then having the information sent via the network to the person that is trying to locate the telephone. Services allowing such cellphone tracking are Souguide, Mologogo, instaMapper, Buddyway, Vismo and Google Latitude.[7][8][9][10][11]

Operational purpose

In order to route calls to a phone the cell towers listen for a signal sent from the phone and negotiate which tower is best able to communicate with the phone. As the phone changes location, the antenna towers monitor the signal and the phone is roamed to an adjacent tower as appropriate. By comparing the relative signal strength from multiple antenna towers a general location of a phone can be roughly determined. Other means is the antenna pattern that supports angular determination and phase discrimination. Newer phones may also allow the tracking of the phone even when turned on and not active in a telephone call-. This results from the roaming procedures that perform hand over of the phone from one base station to another.[12]

Bearer interest
A phone's location can be uploaded to a common web site where one's "friends and family" can view one's last reported position. Newer phones may have built-in GPS receivers which could be used in a similar fashion, but with much higher accuracy.

Privacy
Locating or positioning touches upon delicate privacy issues, since it enables someone to check where a person is without the person's consent. Strict ethics and security measures are strongly recommended for services that employ positioning, and the user must give an informed, explicit consent to a service provider before the service provider can compute positioning data from the user's mobile phone. In Europe, where most countries have a constitutional guarantee on the secrecy of correspondence, location data obtained from mobile phone networks is usually given the same protection as the communication itself. The United States however has no explicit constitutional guarantee on the privacy of telecommunications, so use of location data is limited by law. With tolling systems, as in Germany, the locating of vehicles is equally sensitive to the constitutional guarantee on the secrecy of correspondence and thus any further use of tolling information beyond deducting the road fee is prohibited. Even obviously criminal intent may not be inferred by such means, although such a use is technically possible. Officially, the authorities (like the police) can obtain permission to position phones in emergency cases where people (including criminals) are missing. The U.S. Justice Department has argued that current laws allow them to track suspects without having probable cause to suspect a law is being violated.[13] In some instances law enforcement may even access a mobile phone's internal microphone to eavesdrop on local conversations while the phone is switched off.[14]

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is tracking some cases, including USA v. Pen Register, regarding government tracking of individuals.[15] Some "Free" tracking services allow the cellular telephone number being tracked to be added to telemarketers' lists. China has proposed using this technology to track commuting patterns of Beijing city residents.[16]

Real-time locating system-The principle of mobile tracking

Real-time locating systems (RTLS) are a type of local positioning system that allow to track and identify the location of objects in real time. Using simple, inexpensive badges or tags attached to the objects, readers receive wireless signals from these tags to determine their locations.[1] RTLS typically refers to systems that provide passive or active (automatic) collection of location information. Location information usually does not include speed, direction, or spatial orientation. These additional measurements would be part of a navigation, maneuvering or positioning system.

Origin
The term RTLS was created (circa 1998) to describe an emerging technology that not only provided the Automatic Identification capabilities of active RFID tags, but added the ability to see the physical location of the tagged asset on a computer screen. Although this capability had been utilized previously by military and government agencies, the technology had been too expensive for commercial purposes. By the early 1990s, commercialization began at two healthcare facilities in the United States (Foote Hospital in Jackson, MI and Broward Children's Hospital in Pompano Beach, FL). These early adopters are attributed to real-time locating industry innovator Precision Tracking (Versus Technology, Inc.) and were based on the transmission and decoding of infrared light signals from actively transmitting tags.

System designs
RTLS excludes passive RFID indexing (radio frequency transponder indexers) and Cellnet base station segment locators (location-based services) from the scope of the ISO/IECapproach to RTLS standardization as well as all beacon systems, that ping without request. RTLS systems apply typically in confined areas, where the required reference points would be equipped with wireless anchor nodes.

Operation
For RTLS to function, the location of tagged items must be determined either by a central processor or by an embedded mobile computing facility. Locating is generally accomplished in one of the following ways

1. ID signals from nodes are identifiable to a single reader in a sensory network thus indicating the coincidence of reader and nodes.

2. ID signals from nodes are picked up by a multiplicity of readers in a sensory network and a position is estimated using one or more locating algorithms

3. Location signals from signposts with identifiers are transmitted to the moving nodes and are then relayed, usually via a second wireless channel, to a location processor.

4. Mobile nodes communicate with each other and perform metering distances.

Examples one (1) and three (3) have much of the same characteristics. They typically require that a node be assigned at a time to a single reader/signpost. Separation from overlapping readers/signposts is roughly provided by RSSI or Physical Space Division (walls/floors/ceilings). Readers/signposts are often associated with highly stable location boundaries (i.e. a room or room division). In these examples, locations are listed as "Current Location" or "Last Known Location." Example two (2) requires that distances between nodes in the sensory network be determined in order to precisely locate a node. In this instance, the determination of the location is called Localization. The location is calculated through Trilateration or Multilateration from the determined distance between the nodes or through Triangulation from the determined angles between nodes. The determination of distances is called Ranging.

Application
RTLS serves in operational areas for logistics and other services,as for example stock grounds or storehouses, and for servicing areas in clinics and industrial plants. Tasks done by a RTLS include:

to combine identity and location of any type of items or objects to combine identity of items with location of lifter placing the items to ensure permanent availability of proper information about temporary placement to support notification of placing of items to prove proper manning of operational areas to prove consequent evacuation of endangered areas to make marshalling staff dispensable

Standards
ISO/IEC
The basic issues of RTLS are standardized by the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission, under the ISO/IEC 24730 series. In this series of standards, the

basic standard ISO/IEC 24730-1 identifies the terms describing a form of RTLS used by a set of vendors, but does not encompass the full scope of RTLS technology. Currently several standards are published or under discussion:

ISO/IEC FDIS 19762-5 Information technology AIDC techniques Harmonized vocabulary, Part 5 Locating systems

ISO/IEC 24730-1:2006 Information technology real-time locating systems (RTLS) Part 1: Application program interface (published).

ISO/IEC 24730-2:2006 Information technology real-time locating systems (RTLS) Part 2: 2,4 GHz Air interface protocol (published, WhereNet/Zebra approach).

ISO/IEC WD 24730-5 Information technology real-time locating systems (RTLS) Part 5: (drafted ISO/IEC standard out for balloting in 2008, Nanotron approach).

The other proposals ISO/IEC 24730-3 and ISO/IEC 24730-4 had never left the stage of intention. For copies of these documents see references. These standards do not stipulate any special method of computing locations, nor the method of measuring locations. This may be defined in specifications for triangulation or any hybrid approaches to trigonometric computing for planar or spherical models of a terrestrial area.

Ranging
Ranging, as a special term for measuring distance, is the prerequisite for locating. Measuring a bearing angle, i.e. angulating is the other alternative. Determining the distance may be either a non cooperative scanning process, as with RADAR or LIDAR, or a cooperative direct distance measuring process, as with RTLS. A scanned beam may form an overall image as a model of the whole scene. In all other cases the image of the scene is rather selective. The following step is extracting the distance information from the scanned image. Direct distance measurement with a single beam targets only the object to be measured, for example, with a laser. This method requires additional information about the direction of the beam. The remaining method is omni-directional transmission with a signal containing an address code. Only the addressed object responds to the request. The time required for the signal to reach the object can be used to calculate the distance. After completing the distance measurement, the location may be computed. There are two different principles when measuring travel time of radio waves:

Trilateration derives the travel time of a radio signal from a metering unit, and measures and computes the distance with the relation of light speed in vacuum, the (Time of arrivalconcept).

Triangulation derives the travel time of a pair of synchronous radio signals from a metering unit with two transmitters, and measures and computes the difference of distance with the relation of light speed in vacuum as an angle versus the baseline of the two transmitters (TDOA time difference of arrival concept).

All the terms named here just apply to measurement concepts. All information about location is for services applied to mobile or portable or otherwise transportable objects. Location information may be relevant for managing interaction of persons with services as well.

Angle of arrival (AoA) Line-of-sight (LoS) Time of arrival (ToA) Multilateration (Time difference of arrival) (TDoA) Time-of-flight (ToF) Two-way ranging (TWR) according to Nanotrons patents Symmetrical Double Sided Two Way Ranging (SDS-TWR) Near-field electromagnetic ranging (NFER)

Privacy concerns
RTLS may be seen a threat to privacy, if applied to persons, either directly or parasitically. The requirement therefore is to describe the purpose and the conditions of operation to those affected and to advertise for expressed agreement. Recent adjustment of jurisdiction leads to more careful assessment of needs and options. The newly declared human right of informational self-determination de:Informationelle Selbstbestimmung, i.e. to prevent one's identity and personal data from disclosure to others, covers disclosure of locality as well. Base of discussion is very similar to disclosure of personal data for passing immigration at US airports: Balancing threat and burden [4].

Locating concepts
A lot of systems concepts sails under the label of real-time locating systems. However the qualification of these approaches is very different and offers a wide variation of cost-to-benefit ratio.

1.Locating at choke points

There is class of most simple locating which applies no physical measurement at all, but just communicates at coincidence of transceiver and transponder as long as communication may happen. Then locating collapses to simple application of RFID technologies according to the equivalent standard.[20] This is the only option to apply passive RFID tags for locating. Then the reach of the RFID reader determines the choke point. Hence accuracy is defined by the sphere spanned with the reach of the reader. The concept does not serve for discrimination of

direction on passage, unless the reader is enhanced with a two distant antenna inputs to determine a sequence of activation and deactivation of the pair of antennae.

2.Locating in relative coordinates

Many references describe locating at relative coordinates. Such coordinates may be radial distances compared with reference to known locations and no angular directions. There is no exact metrics required, unless the relation to the reference points is intelligible. This is a valuable support for many operational needs, whereas the precision of the term RTLS is widely diluted to arbitrary interpretation. Such solutions may be referred as fuzzy locating.

3.Locating in absolute coordinates

The high precision of satellite navigation systems led to some snugness in setting the requirements for locating of objects. generally the determining of absolute coordinates is the most challenging approach. Such solutions may be referred as crisp locating. The difference to the qualities of relative coordinates may be easily understood with indoor sensor operations, where satellites are not commonly available for referring to global coordinates and when always a multiplicity of errors applies. The most challenging problem with modern modulation concepts still is multi-path propagation, which causes ambiguous results of erratic measurement. A sound escape from electromagnetics and surface effects is found with ultra short pulse communications, as with UWB indoor approaches. However, many such concepts often do not serve results for the paid price when the targets move. This may be assessed by the vast number of publications and the very small references on installed solutions

4.Locating in contiguity
A newer approach for locating defines a location just as the contiguous ambience of the person looking for something to be located. That is very similar to choke point locating. However, the accuracy may be much better tuned, as the reach is not influenced by the steady illumination of the tag with the reader, but just by the tuned transmission power level of an active RFID tag as an itermittent beacon. This is the easy option to apply graded active RFID tags for economised locating. Then the reach of the RFID receiver determines the base point. Hence operational suitability is defined by the algorithm for varying the minimum reach of transmission of the beacon. Solutions are available as very simple electronic leashes or in more complex designs. A very common application is with electronic wireless lock solutions. More advanced applications combine the tag operation with autonomously operating software agents, e.g. in smartphones for monitoring manually controlled systems and services.[21]

Erratic effects in locating systems

Real-time locating is affected by a variety of errors. The major reasons are physical and may not be reduced by improving the technical equipment. The only escape is mathematical intelligence to improve. 1.None or no direct response Many RTLS systems have a very mundane requirement: they require direct and clear wireless visibility. For those systems, where there is no visibility on the path from mobile tags to resident nodes there will be no result or a non valid result from locating engine. This applies to satellite locating as well as other RTLS systems such as angle of arrival and time of arrival. Fingerprinting is a way to overcome the visibility issue: If the locations in the tracking area contain distinct measurement fingerprints, line of sight is not necessarily needed. For example, if each location contains a unique combination of signal strength readings from transmitters, the location system will function properly. This is true, for example, with some Wi-Fi based RTLS solutions. However, having distinct signal strength fingerprints in each location typically requires a fairly high saturation of transmitters. 2.False location The measured location may appear entirely faulty. This is a generally result of simple operational models to compensate for the plurality of error sources. It proves impossible to serve proper location after ignoring the errors. 3.Locating backlog Real time is no registered branding and has no inherent quality. A variety of offers sails under this term. As motion causes location changes, inevitably the latency time to compute a new location may be dominant with regard to motion. Either an RTLS system that requires waiting for new results is not worth the money or the operational concept that asks for faster location updates does not comply with the chosen systems approach. 4.Temporary location error Location will never be reported exactly, as the term real-time and the term precision directly contradict in aspects of measurement theory as well as the term precision and the term costcontradict in aspects of economy. That is no exclusion of precision, but the limitations with higher speed are inevitable. 5.Steady location error Recognizing a reported location steadily apart from physical presence generally indicates the problem of insufficient over-determination and missing of visibility along at least one link from resident anchors to mobile transponders. Such effect is caused also by insufficient concepts to compensate for calibration needs. 6.Location jitter Noise from various sources has an erratic influence on stability of results. The aim to provide a steady appearance increases the latency contradicting to real time requirements.

7.Location jump As objects containing mass have limitations to jump, such effects are mostly beyond physical reality. Jumps of reported location not visible with the object itself generally indicate improper modeling with the location engine. Such effect is caused by changing dominance of various secondary responses. 8.Location creep Location of residing objects gets reported moving, as soon as the measures taken are biased by secondary path reflections with increasing weight over time. Such effect is caused by simple averaging and the effect indicates insufficient discrimination of first echoes.