Cell Phone GPS Tracking Information

Several important technical capabilities related to GPS phone tracking to consider include: Tracking Application “Persistence”. The tracking application on a cell phone usually must be enabled by the user. Depending on the cell phone, the application may persist – remaining enabled when the phone is turned on after having been turned off. This feature can be particularly handy if phone tracking is important and you do not want to require the person using the phone to turn tracking on and off. Another issue related to Tracking Application “Persistence” and mobile phone GPS location is the possibility of wasting the battery. It is important to be able to remotely adjust how often of taking GPS position. Choosing real-time or periodic sampling affects both the resolution of finding position as well as battery life. One typical means of minimizing battery and data use is Passive Tracking. Some mobile phone GPS tracking devices will record location data internally so that it can be downloaded later. Also known as

“data logging,” which can maintain location information even when the device has traveled outside the wireless network. Passive tracking is not a universal feature built-in to standard smartphone, but the latest smartphones tend to include Passive tracking ability.

Much of the discussion dealing with cell tracking, cell phone GPS and cell phone tracker software could be helped by a GPS Satellite primer.

GPS satellites broadcast signals from space that GPS receivers use to determine three-dimensional location (latitude, longitude, and altitude) plus precise time. GPS stands for Global Positioning System and is a system that is composed of 3 main segments: Space Segment, Control Segment and User Segment.

The GPS Space Segment incorporates twenty-four to thirty-two satellites that orbit the earth at a height of about 12,000 miles. These satellites are also known as as the GPS Constellation, and they are orbiting twice a day. They are not geostationary, they travel at over 7,000 mph. GPS satellites are solar powered but have battery backup for when they are in the earth?s shadow. They are positioned so that at any given time there are at least 4 satellites ?visible? from any point on earth. Small rocket boosters on each satellite keep them properly positioned. The satellites last about ten years until all their fuel runs out.

GPS Satellites are not communications satellites. Geostationary or communications satellites are at a much higher orbit of about 22,300 miles above the equator. These satellites are used for weather forecasting, satellite TV, satellite radio and most other types of global communications. At exactly 22,000 miles above the equator, the earth’s gravitational force and centrifugal forces are offset and are in equilibrium. This is the best location to place a communications satellite. The earth rotates at about 1,000 miles an hour, and because of their high earth orbit the geostationary satellites need to move at about 7,000 mph to maintain position. This is just about the same speed as GPS satellites, but since stationary satellites are 10,000 miles further away they don?t move relative to the earth.

The GPS Control Segment consists of Master Control Station, an Alternate Master Control Station, and a host of dedicated and shared Ground Antennas and Monitor Stations that work together to make sure the satellites are working to specification and the data they beam down to earth is accurate.

The GPS User Segment is composed of of GPS receivers taking the shape of cell phones and , laptops, in-car navigation devices and hand-held tracking units along with the people that use them, and the software programs that make them work.

GPS receivers often take a long time to become ready to use after it’s turned on because it must acquire some basic information in addition to capturing GPS satellite signals. This delay can be caused when the GPS device has been unused for days or weeks, or has been transported a significant distance while turned off for. The GPS must update its almanac and ephemeris data and store it in memory. The GPS almanac is a set of data that every GPS satellite transmits. When a GPS receiver has current almanac data in memory, it can capture signals and calculate initial location faster.

In the event that satellite signals are not available, or accuracy and precision is less important than battery life, making use of Cell-ID is a good substitute to GPS smartphone tracking. The position of the handset can be computed by the cellular network cell id, which recognizes the cell tower the phone is connected to. By knowing the position of the tower, then you can know approximately the place that the mobile phone might be. Nonetheless, a tower can cover a huge area, from a couple of hundred meters, in high populationdensity regions, to several miles in lower density areas. This is why location CellID precision is less than than GPS accuracy. Nevertheless monitoring from CellID still presents a truly good substitute.

Cell Phone GPS Tracking Information