A directional propagation model for locating mobile stations within a mobile phone network. (28th July 2008)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chu, Kenneth M.K.; Leung, Karl R.P.H.; Ng, Joseph Kee-Yin; Li, Chun Hung
• Is Part Of: International journal of wireless and mobile computing. Volume 3:Number 1/2(2008)
• Page Start: 12
• Page End: 21
• Publication Date: 2008-07-28
• Subjects: mobile location estimation -- signal strength -- statistical propagation model -- SPM -- directional antenna -- mobile stations -- mobile phone networks -- mobile phones -- cell phones -- wave propagation -- Hong Kong -- directional propagation model -- DPM; Mobile computing -- Periodicals; Wireless communication systems -- Periodicals; 004.6
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1741-1084

Abstract

Mobile location estimation is becoming a high value added service on cellular phone networks. Among different mobile location estimation methods, the one which estimates the location of Mobile Stations (MSs) with reference to an intrinsics of wireless communication, signal strengths, is able to be applied to different kinds of cellular network, and hence is more general. This approach makes use of a wave propagation model to perform location estimation. Most wave propagation models are non-directional. However, we found out that in estimating mobile location with reference to signal strength, the azimuth gain of directional antenna and environmental factors can help to improve the accuracy. In this paper, we report our study of a Directional Propagation Model (DPM) which enhanced the traditional propagation model with these factors. We experimented our model with 192, 177 sets of real life data covering most parts of Hong Kong collected from a major mobile hone operator of Hong Kong. Results show that the DPM models have significant improvement over other existing location methods in terms of accuracy and stability.