Position and Velocity Tracking in Cellular Networks Using the Kalman Filter

“Access to the right information anytime, anywhere” is becoming the new driving force for the information technology revolution. The “right” information’s relevance is based on the user’s profile and his/her current geographical position and/or time. Location Based Service (LBS) is an innovative technology that provides information or makes information available based on the geographical location of the mobile user. Analysts predict that LBSs will lead to new applications, generating billions of US dollars worldwide (Leite, 2001; Searle, 2001). The need for an efficient and accurate mobile station (MS) positioning system is growing day by day. The ability to pinpoint the location of an individual has an obvious and vital value in the context of emergency services (Chan, 2003; Olama et al., 2008). Pinpointing the location of people and other valuable assets also opens the door to a new world of previously unimagined information services and m-commerce probabilities. For example, availability of services like “Where is the nearest ATM?”, “Check traffic conditions on the highway on my route”, “Find a parking lot nearby”, as well as answers to “Where is my advisor?”, and “Where is my car?” will be an everyday rule in our lives (Charalambous & Panayiotou, 2004). A technology independent LBS architecture can be considered as comprised by three main parts (Girodon, 2002): A user requesting information, a mobile network operator and its partners, and several content providers (e.g. data, maps). The subscriber requests a personalized service dependant on his geographic location. The system will ask the Location Services Manager (which is in charge of handling requests, i.e., send/receive to the Location Calculator and the Content Providers) to pinpoint the location of the mobile. The Location Services Manager (LSM), using the Location Calculator, will ask the Content Provider (CP) to supply qualified information according to the mobile’s geographical position. The LSM will eventually receive the answer from the CP and send it to the mobile, performing the essential data translations. Fig. 1 outlines the precedent concept. O pe n A cc es s D at ab as e w w w .in te ch w eb .o rg