Mobile Positioning Solutions for GSM

Dirk Nikolai Alcatel R&I Stuttgart

January 11th, 2002

Definition of mobile Location Services (LCS)

Network-based services that integrate a derived estimate of a mobile device's location or position with other information so as to provide added value to the user.

Dirk Nikolai

Alcatel Stuttgart

11-jan-02

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Family of Location Services

Range of applications
Network related
Network management,

Information

Assistance

Asset tracking
Wireless remote management & control

Entertainment, news, weather, Personal or vehicle emergency, traffic & navigation, roadside assistance, advertising, find your friend alarm management

billing,
customer care.

B2B
B: Business C: Consumer M: Machine P: Person

B2C
Pushed info. Discount, ad, special event

C2B
Pulled info. Find Gas station, restaurant,

C2C
Pulled info. Find friend, pets

Fleet & freight tracking

M2P M2M & P2P P2M

P2P

Dirk Nikolai

Alcatel Stuttgart

11-jan-02

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Expected Revenues: An emerging, but uncertain Market!

Localised Services
Billing Information Roadside assistance Traffic & navigation M-Commerce Advertising 2005 EU operator revenues Y00-Y05 cumulated revenues

Strategis Group
~$Bio 15.9 ~$Bio 13.5 ~$Bio 1.7 ~$Bio 1.6

Ovum

~$Bio 1.9

~$Bio 1.1 ~$Bio 2.1 ~$Bio 32.7 ~$Bio 81.9 ~$Bio 5 ~$Bio 11

Discrepancies : Service definition, penetration rate, number of requests, various sources of revenues
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Positioning technologies Cell based methods



Cell-Identifier (CI) based, refined by Timing Advance (TA)

Enhancement: usage of received signal levels (RXLEV in NMR) - refine and add reliability to position
1 4

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Positioning Technologies Trilateration: time differences in network

In existing GSM networks BTSs are not synchronized (RTD { 0) Position calculation via hyperbolic trilateration between BTS pairs RTD

GTD = OTD RTD

RTD : Real Time Difference OTD : Observed Time Difference GTD : Geometric Time Difference GTD = 0
Dirk Nikolai Alcatel Stuttgart

( = OTD

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Positioning Technologies Trilateration



Measurement of Observed Time Difference between 3 BTS

TA circle

Two types of Location Measurement Units (LMU) are foreseen in the standard

Base Station

 

Type A, stand-alone Type B, integrated in the BTS

Base Station


LMU can be avoided by synchronizing BTSs with GPS or by time-stamping DL emissions

E-OTD/OTDOA Base Station hyperbolas

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Positioning technologies: Assisted GNSS

 

Integration of GNSS (GPS) receiver in the handset Assistance data sent through RAN: ephemeris, clock information, differential corrections


Enhance accuracy, integrity, time-to-first-fix, increase battery life...

GSM
A s s is ta n c e D a ta

N e tw o rk

R e fe re n c e R e c e iv e r

G N S S G ro u n d S ta tio n

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Alcatel Stuttgart

11-jan-02

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Positioning technologies: Technologies comparison

Complexity / Investment
High

Assisted GNSS E-OTD OTDOA

Network costly HW impact; new SW in handset Handset HW costly modification; Indoor coverage problem

CELL-ID + TA + NMR
Low Low High

Accuracy

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Alcatel Stuttgart

11-jan-02

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Network Based Positioning Methods

Network Based Positioning:

 

allows to locate legacy handsets (100% penetration) supplementary solution to GNSS positioning

Candidates for Cell-Identity-based Positioning (CI, CI++):

  

Cell-ID only (geographical coordinates of serving cell) Cell-ID and Timing Advance CI+TA

CI

Cell-ID, Timing Advance and received signals level (RXLEV) CI+TA+NMR (network measurement report)
 Distance  Field

Calculation Method (DCM) Calculation Methods (ACM)

Strength Mapping (FSM)

 Advanced

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Alcatel Stuttgart

11-jan-02

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Positioning Method CI+TA

Cell-Identity and Timing Advance

 

TA gives a distance estimate between the BTS and the MS straight TA-distance = (TA-value + ) dTA dTA = 3.69Qs symbol period 3e8 m/s = 554m Easy to implement:
 

Omnidirectional cells: estimated position = BTS position Sectored cells: estimated position = intersection of antenna azimuth and TA-distance

Dirk Nikolai

Alcatel Stuttgart

11-jan-02

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Positioning Method CI+TA+NMR Distance Calculation Method (DCM)

Cell-Identity, Timing Advance and Measurement Report (NMR)


NMR contains measured RX levels from serving cell and neighbouring cell(s) Modelling of propagation loss: Hatas Formula L = A + B log10(d/km)


L: decibel path loss A: offset loss B: distance exponential

Calculate distance d to BTSs based on measured path loss L: d/km = 10^((L A) / B) Contours are Stuttgart Alcatel circles (per BTS sector) 11-jan-02
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Distance Calculation Method (DCM) Illustration of Position Calculation

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Alcatel Stuttgart

11-jan-02

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Distance Calculation Method (DCM) Data from Measurements

Comparison of Hatas path loss formula with field data

standard deviation in the range of 10~20 dB !

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Positioning Method CI+TA+NMR Field Strength Mapping (FSM)

Cell-Identity, Timing Advance and Measurement Report (NMR)


Cellular area is splitted in pixels (e.g. 50m x 50m) for which received levels of surrounding cells are predicted Usage of Alcatels RNP A955 (radio network planning tool) for field strength prediction: semi-empirical or ray-optical modelling Input for FSM algorithm: Power plots of all cells covering the whole service area (multiple layers) Comparing predicted levels and those observed by the MS, the network can derive in which zone the MS is located
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Field Strength Mapping (FSM) RNP A955 for field strength prediction

Dirk Nikolai

Alcatel Stuttgart

11-jan-02

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Field Strength Mapping (FSM) Best Pattern Matching: 3D Illustration

Search predicted pattern with mininum distance to observed level pattern (sum of squared distances).

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Alcatel Stuttgart

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Description of Input Data for Performance Evaluation



Input Data:
MS reference position: GPS coordinates Standard GSM data: Cell-ID, TA, measurement report (RXLEVs) BTS info: coordinates of serving cell and neighbouring cells (CI), EIRPs, antenna azimuth, antenna pattern, ... For FSM method: field strength prediction for each cell (RNP tool)

Different geographical areas under test, e.g.

Ruse (Bulgaria): suburban, 4.000 measurements Piotrkow (Poland): rural area, 3.800 measurements Lodz (Poland): rural area, 4.400 measurements Alexandrow (Poland): suburban, 3.000 measurements

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Alcatel Stuttgart

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Input Data Lodz (Poland) MS reference positions

  

rural area sectored cells only cell radius roughly 10 km ... 15 km 1 measurement/s 4.400 measurements (~1h)

 

Dirk Nikolai

Alcatel Stuttgart

11-jan-02

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Accuracy of CI+TA Example Lodz

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Alcatel Stuttgart

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Mean Accuracy of Positioning Algorithms

7458

5339

5000 4500 4000 3500

3045 3608

mean distance to 3000 real position [m] 2500

2000 1500 1000 500 0
CI M DC CI
1117 1324 807 789 545 592 1344 1259 983 677 1913

Lo d z Alexandr o w Piotrkow

A +T

M FS

M AC

Dirk Nikolai

Alcatel Stuttgart

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Summary

LCS is uncertain market



many business opportunities: next major revenue chance for telecomm operators services are slowly coming up and will evolve with customer usage

Positioning techniques vary widely in terms of cost and accuracy

 

robust CI+TA+NMR-based solution with full market penetration high variance of received power levels makes RXLEV-based positioning difficult, accuracy depends on cell size enhanced accuracy using GNSS technology (new handsets required) positioning accuracy vs. cost adapted to anticipated customer needs combination of various methods will provide best service availability and accuracy
Alcatel Stuttgart 11-jan-02
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Dirk Nikolai

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Supplementary Slides

Abbreviations

2 2C Cell-ID DC S NSS S LCS 2 2

Dirk Nikolai

usiness to usiness usiness to Consu er Cell I entit Distance Calculation iel Strengt et o N

obile Station Net ork easure ent eport eceive o er Level Serving obile Location Center Ti ing A vance Ti e of Arrival Ti e To irst i

LE S LC TA T A TT

apping

lobal Navigation Satellite S ste lobal ositioning S ste Location Services ac ine to ac ine

ac ine to erson
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Positioning technologies Assisted GNSS: two variants

Radio Measurements

Position calculation

X, Y

 

Measurements are always done in the handset Position can be calculated...

 

in the handset (MS-based) or in the SMLC (MS-assisted)

  
Dirk Nikolai

User privacy is a major concern Position information property? Allows for indoors GPS due to sensitivity enhancements
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LCS network architecture 3GPP Standard

{LMU Type A} Uu

New elements
Node B LMU type B Iub SRNC Iups 3G SGSN Iucs 3G SMLC MSC Lg Lg Lh Le External LCS client HLR

GMLC

Lg SMLC MFS Lb BTS LMU type B {LMU Type A}

-

Gb

2G SGSN

Lg

BSC Ater TC

2G MSC

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Alcatel Stuttgart

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