Radio location of mobile stations in third generation networks

Abstract

Mobile station localization in mobile networks started with simple methods (e.g. Cell-ID method) which required only slight modifications of network infrastructures. Principally, it was about network localization by which a localization service became available to all types of mobile phones. Due to low precision, the initiated development of more sophisticated methods has not been finished yet. Among the advanced location-based methods are those based on the measurement of location parameters in the time domain. In this paper the general consideration of radio location methods in 3G (UMTS) radio networks is presented. The use of time based measurement methods was analyzed in detail. Due to the limited article length, the use of other locating methods in 3G networks (based on power measurements, on radio direction measurement, and on cells identification - Cell ID and global positioning system - GPS) are not described.