Providing Universal Location Services Using a Wireless E911 Location Network

0163-6804/98/$10.00 © 1998 IEEE n June 1996, the FCC adopted FCC Docket 94-102 [1] as an official report and order (R&O), thereby officially mandating that wireless 911 callers receive the same level of emergency service as that available to wireline callers who have benefited from wireline Enhanced 911 (E911). One of the key provisions of FCC 94-102 is that cellular, personal communications services (PCS), and specialized mobile radio (SMR) service providers deploy a means of automatically locating 911 callers to within 125 m in 67 percent of all measurements by October 31, 2001. In the process, the FCC R&O will create what is forecast to be a multibillion-dollar market for caller location technologies [2], which in turn is expected to catalyze the offering of a new array of noncellular location-based services such as monitoring the location of people, cargo, or vehicles. In this article we review the issues associated with E911 location services and discuss how a system originally developed by Signatron Technology Corporation (STC) for locating lost patients may offer performance and cost advantages for an E911 location implementation, particularly when the location base station equipment is used to provide both E911 and general location services. We begin with a brief overview of the requirements of a cellular E911 location system and an overview of existing location technologies. We then give an overview of the Signatron Location System (SLS) developed by STC, and conclude with two examples describing how this technology may be applied to locating wandering Alzheimer’s disease patients and tracking parolees.