The development of the mobile communications brought services and applications based on querying the environment of their subscribers and monitoring or tracking remote objects. The location of the subscriber or the object and its current state is the key input information for these services. Parents would like to track their children or family members, elderly people may need help, police, emergency service or taxi dispatchers need to know where to send the closest vehicle to the right place, tourists or visitors ask for nearby services or sightseeings, operators want to color their subscribers in different categories depending on their state or settings. These are just few examples for location-based services that are a vibrant and rapidly evolving area for both operators and third party service providers.
As the location and state of the subscribers and objects feed the location and presence based services it is important for the operators firstly to install and maintain the corresponding middleware in the core network, which implements the network specific technologies to retrieve or track the positions and states, and secondly, to provide controlled and secure access to this middleware for all service providers.
Applicata location middleware implements a network centric approach for retrieving information for the current or last known geographical location of mobile subscribers in GSM network, combined with their state (idle, busy, detached, etc). Once retrieved, the location and state information is provided to location-based services for further processing.
Applicata Positioning and Subscriber State Middleware (PSSM) solution is installed in GSM/UMTS core network. It exports an interface for LBS clients and comprises several functions, some of them optional.
GCP Function
NPA Function
GNP Function
Retrieves the Global Cell ID and sectoral information from the network
Provides Active Location Retrieval and Intra-LA positioning
Makes use of mobile management procedures
Receives notifications on location updates, network attach or detach and on network initiated detach
Implements the Generic Network Possitioning Procedures
Supports MCS-based and BSS-based SMLC
Enable and fit into the growing market of location- and presence-based services
Implement the service without the need of changes in the core network and subscribers phones
Provide controlled and secure access to the service
Flexible billing support
An interface based on open standards
The option for retrieving the current or last known data
The option to subscribe for notifications when subscriber position or state changes
