GPS technology in telecommunications and location-based services

GPS

Assessing Global Positioning Systems

Defining Global Positioning Systems

Commercialization of GPS: From Personal Technology to the Enterprise

GPS Use in E-Commerce - Emerging Applications

Assessing the Value of GPS and its Limitations

The intent of this paper is to define the concepts behind Global Positioning Systems (GPS), specifically focusing on how the data is used from these systems and their role on data communications networks as well. As GPS is becoming a pervasive technology, its role in convergence of personal electronic devices ranging from cellular phones to Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) is discussed. The paper ends with a discussion of the value of GPS, its potential problems and recommendations on how to effectively use this technology in a variety of applications.

Defining Global Positioning Systems

The underlying foundation of the Global Positioning System (GPS) is based on the United States' Department of Defense Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) (Jung, Lee, Chun, 2006). The U.S. Department of Defense has created specific initiatives and configuration options to allow for commercial use of the satellites that comprise the GNSS, was has resulted in a consistent growth rate of 15% per year in terms of usage and growth in convergence-based products and services (Tong, Merry, Coifman, 2009). The entire GNSS network is comprised of a total of 32 Medium Earth Orbit satellites that are capable of bidirectional sending and receiving microwave signals across a spread spectrum range that does not conflict with other electromagnetic and microwave-based devices. This allows for GPS technologies to provide location-aware coordinates including the time within a specific time zone of the observation, velocity of the object, and current location. As a result of the detailed data pertaining to location, distance travelled and velocity, GPS is achieving high rates of adoption in locational-based and locational-oriented routing, which is proving to be indispensible in managing logistics and supply chain functions (Ko, Vaidya, 2000). The use of GPS in cellular phones, Blackberries, and other Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) products are providing telecommunications service providers with exceptionally detailed data on the location, habitual travel patterns and even the retail establishments customers visit. Google's introduction of the Latitude Service in 2009 (Bradner, 2009) is an opt-in service that capitalizes on the three dominant systems that comprise the GPS telecommunications backbone globally by using the space segment (SS), control segment (CS) and user segment (U.S.) to tell current and anticipated locations of friends who also opt into the service. This is setting the foundation for context-aware marketing of services and even the distribution of coupons that are location aware and contextually-based through an emerging concept called cyber foraging (Soylemezoglu, Zawodniok, Cha, Hall, et al., 2006).

The three critical segments of the GNSS also function to triangulate the location of specific GPS transmitters, taking into account a myriad of factors that are used for computing relative location, object velocity, and relative location using dead reckoning based algorithms to verify locations over time (Weinberg, 2009). What is impressive about this technology is that the triangulation that is at the core of its value is also capable of generating a consistent stream of data at 50 bits/second on average (Weinberg, 2009). While the performance of GPS streaming varies significantly over extended periods of time, the approach taken for ensuring accuracy and reliability of the data signals focus first on using a modulation/demodulation sequence that includes the use of cyclic redundancy checking (CRC) that can be configured for specific devices and communications protocols with the inbound and outbound data streams (GPS Management Application, 2009). GPS communications are also packetized and including CRC and Error Correction Code (ECC) segments at the front and end of each packet sent and received to check for byte ordering and validity, further ensuring a high level of accuracy, reliability and redundancy in the data transmissions (GPS Management Application, 2009). The use of triangulation to route the packets sent and received is completed at each of the inbound and outbound messaging and transmission locations (GPS Management Application, 2009). The entire transmission process within the GNSS is also monitored and audited to ensure accuracy, consistency and reliability is achieved over the long-term, with audits used to further increase CRS, ECC and other error correction algorithms and routing protocols to ensure continual gains are made in overall system performance (Bangert, 2009). If the Space Segment (SS), Control Segment (CS) and User Segment (U.S.) are visualized as a Venn diagram, the use of auditing procedures as defined by the U.S. Department of Defense in conjunction with telecommunications equipment and services providers are used for ensuring the SS and CS stay in relative synchronization with each other (Bangert, 2009). As these twp aspects of the GNSS fluctuate in terms of orbital accuracy and message clarity, it is critical for auditing and error correction procedures to be in place to compensate for these variations.

GPS Use in E-Commerce - Emerging Applications

In assessing the value of GPS from an enterprise perspective there is also the emerging role of this technology in context-aware and location-aware e-commerce applications as well. The combining of individual preferences of consumers, stored in taxonomies and then combined with location-based GPS signals to determine if there is a match between interests and businesses in the area, is creating an entirely new approach to mobile e-commerce called cyber foraging (Soylemezoglu, Zawodniok, Cha, Hall, et al., 2006). Google's Latitude introduction earlier this year (Bradner, 2009) has initially been promoted as opt-in and egalitarian in approach. It is clear from the success of Google with their AdWords strategy and other advertising-centric initiatives that location-based and context-aware advertising to GPS devices is on the product roadmap for this service however. Google's investments in telecommunications networks that can interpret location and movements to define patterns of predictability in users who opts in will eventually receive advertisements, coupons and promotional items that align to their taxonomy, or organization of needs, on their GPS-enabled devices. The current research being completed is concentrating on how to intermediate interest of consumers who have multiple taxonomies, or approaches to organizing their data, so that context- and location-aware advertising and promotional materials sent to them are relevant (Soylemezoglu, Zawodniok, Cha, Hall, et al., 2006). Google is attempting to monetize GPS through the use of these early approaches to cyber foraging that can take into account multiple taxonomies of data, or as researchers have called them, role-based taxonomy definitions (Soylemezoglu, Zawodniok, Cha, Hall, et al., 2006).

The ethical and legal implications of cyber foraging networks are still unclear however. The use of cache-based servers that have GPS-based data streams that continually monitor and customize advertisements to consumers who are near them, even when opted in by the consumers, presents unique security and privacy standards that have yet to be addressed. The use of GPS data in general has long presented an ethical and moral challenge for marketers as well as the government (Satyanarayanan, 2000). It has been well-known that freight and logistics carriers can now with just the use of Web-based applications, monitor the movement, speed, and progress of their trucks, ships and other delivery vehicles in real-time, on a 24/7 basis. While this presents enterprises with unequalled levels of potential productivity gains, it also presents security and privacy challenges as well. In the context of cyber foraging, the issues of ethicacy and opt-in meet head-on, as the use of servers to cache locations and define locational preferences and habits of consumers. For these privacy reasons and the untested nature of location-aware advertising services, it is anticipated that GPS-enabled networks such as these will require exceptional high levels of security so that no spoofing or authentication-based impersonation occurs (Soylemezoglu, Zawodniok, Cha, Hall, et al., 2006). Despite these limitations and concerns however the ability to tailor systems that take into account preferences defined through specific taxonomies and then integrate them with GOPS data presents unique opportunities to further capitalize on this technology.

Assessing the Value of GPS and its Limitations

In conclusion, GPS has proven to be invaluable for a series of consumer commercial and government-based applications. While consumer-based uses have the greatest awareness due to advertising and marketing strategies aimed at educating the general public about its value, the greatest gains are occurring in the enterprise arena (Gaukler, zer, Hausman, 2008). This is because process efficiencies and gains have multiplicative effects throughout an organization, and serve as the basis for greater profitability over time.

Despite this value however there are several drawbacks of GPS. First is the issue of its accuracy and reliability. While ECC and CRC-based data checks are incorporated into its data communications protocol there are still error-ridden transmissions that can in the case of enterprise use, can cost millions of dollars in lost productivity. There is also the limitation of how quickly GPS data can be transmitted through the GNSS. There is a result often signal delay, atmospheric disturbance at Ionospheric transmission levels, and multipath signal corruption as well (GPS Management Application, 2009). The bottom line is that while GPS is delivering valuable locational and velocity-specific data that serves as the foundation for entirely new business models and potentially industries, there is still significant room for improvement in terms of its accuracy and consistency.