Advances in GPS: NAVIZON

Advances in GPS: NAVIZON

By Kris Kolodziej (Featured in LBSzone, 2006)

Location-based services (LBS) are applications that leverage a user’s physical location to provide an enhanced service or experience.

The support for LBS capability in mobile devices represents a great opportunity for application developers to create compelling services that are widely used and highly valued. Location information can be used for a variety of purposes — from providing directions to the nearest restaurant to tracking assets. NAVIZON provides the support that is widespread enough to truly capitalize on this opportunity.

Not until the availability of the NAVIZON wireless positioning system, GPS or cell tower-based systems were the only potential means for basing location-based services. As evidenced by the slow growth in LBS services, these traditional systems proved to be costly to implement as they required specialized equipment, and prone to problems with accuracy and reliability.

GPS does not work indoors, struggles in downtown areas, and is expensive. GPS performs poorly in urban areas where buildings block the view of satellites, and it doesn't provide any coverage inside of buildings. Cell tower triangulation is inaccurate – mobile networks can calculate a position, but the accuracy is rather low (50-300 meters), and, like GPS, requires specialized hardware. Some applications require a high degree of reliability and good indoor performance, which creates technical challenges for application providers. Location positioning in cities and indoors requires other techniques. The technology to enable positioning in all environments is here, and it’s called NAVIZON.

NAVIZON achieves 20-40m positioning accuracy using Wi-Fi Access Points, cell phone towers, and (optionally) GPS. The denser the number of access points, the better. In most cities, there are 8 to 15 APs at any given point of use, which is more than adequate to achieve 20m accuracy. Compare that to GPS, which in urban areas can only be accurate within a block or two.

NAVIZON is the ultimate personal navigation companion to have when GPS isn’t available and it works best in places where GPS does not – in cities and inside buildings. When GPS isn’t available, NAVIZON automatically engages to deliver positioning data to the applications and maps -- which are totally oblivious to the absence of GPS. NAVIZON is still popular for active GPS users, but it extends the extending and enhancing the functionality of mobile devices since it "works where GPS doesn't", especially when "line of sight" is obscured or blocked in dense cities, urban canyons, indoors, underground, etc. When GPS is spotty or unavailable, as in urban areas or indoors, or if a device lacks GPS, NAVIZON can determine the user's position by triangulating known Wi-Fi access points and cell towers.

NAVIZON enables LBS applications and services with consistent and accurate location information. Consumer applications include information-centric service such as maps and directions, what is the nearest (Yellow Pages finder service), location-targeted advertising, photos/video, and MMS to mobile-to-mobile applications such as Buddy Finder and Social Networking. Enterprise applications include field force automation (managing fleets and tracking mobile workers), real estate and custom solutions to emergency services.

Market Realities and NAVIZON’s Advantages

The growth of LBS has been hindered by the shortcomings of existing positioning technology, but also by relatively low levels of GPS penetration due to hardware integration and cost. According to J. Gold Associates, a market research firm, only 1 percent of all cell phones in use had GPS chips in them in 2005. Another source (MasterLink Securities), estimated 1.8% for the overall GPS device market constituting only 132,870 devices. Since cheap Wi-Fi technology is appearing on a raft of gadgets like PDAs, cell-phones and laptops faster than more expensive GPS receivers are, it is predicted that Wi-Fi could become central to new location-based applications.

With NAVIZON, any Wi-Fi or cellular product designed for broadband data networking can be used for location and tracking with no hardware changes. NAVIZON leverages the existing 802.11 hardware already resident in over 120 million Wi-Fi-enabled devices as of 2005, which is estimated to reach 430 million in 2009 (Source: in-Stat, Dec 2005.) Also, there are an estimated 40 million fixed Wi-Fi access points in the US, which constitute a wide wireless coverage (correlated to populous areas.)

The table below compares the penetration of GPS device and Wi-Fi devices in the US for mobile devices.

Table: GPS and Wi-Fi Device Market Penetration in US

In addition, NAVIZON offers a very different commercial environment that is independent of carriers. The key benefit of using NAVIZON, besides better accuracy in cities and indoors, is that WLAN positioning technologies avoid the location data control and integration issues with carriers and mobile handsets, respectively. Navizon has the added appeal of being the first positioning system with content that is not dependent upon a specific carrier.

Plus, there is no uncertainty about which handset or network-based positioning technologies should be used since NAVIZON is cross-carrier (independent of the carrier’s network-based) and multi-platform. One of the barriers to widespread LBS adoption has been the limitation of LBS applications to a limited number of phone models, which constrained subscriber growth. Furthermore, inconsistency in how location services are supported across phone manufacturer/model and networks, even within a single carrier's environment may cause confusion among developers and customers (end-users.)

And, NAVIZON offers a Location API and features to accelerate innovation. Third party software developers can use the power of NAVIZON’s Positioning Engine in their own applications using the software-only positioning API for mobile devices.

“The API was identified as one of the top priorities for the developer community, so we're pleased to be able to satisfy the needs of the developers and other customers in providing this service.” Cyril Houri

NAVIZON: How it Works

NAVIZON is a geo-location system that uses Wi-Fi, cell towers, not GPS satellites (GPS is optional.) In order for users to take advantage of NAVIZON’s ubiquitous positioning capabilities, all they have to do is download NAVIZON, install it on their mobile device, and join the NAVIZON Network to instantly gain access to a dynamic, up-to date reliable radio beacons coverage and map database.

Geo-Positioning

Since NAVIZON knows the identifiers and physical location of radio beacons, it can triangulate its own position by listening for the set of beacons that are transmitting in its immediate vicinity. This way, NAVIZON can pinpoint the location of a WiFi-enabled device by its proximity to different radio beacons the device picks up through its Wi-Fi or cellular radio chip. NAVIZON doesn’t require any additional hardware to turn Wi-Fi devices into 802.11-based GPS. And, for NAVIZON to work, a device equipped with Wi-Fi does not have to be logged on through the access points, which are often protected by passwords.
NAVIZON calculates the user’s position on the handset itself by triangulating radio beacons. Triangulation uses multiple Wi-Fi access points and/or cell towers to find a device based on the received signal strength of the device at each access point. Using algorithms, the NAVIZON Positioning Engine determines the intersection point of the device's signal at each access point to identify the device's location. The NAVIZON software initiates a scan to all access points on the network. Each access point that "hears" the mobile device's signal responds to the request with information regarding signal strength. Access points that fail to hear the device do not respond. The more access points that respond, the greater the accuracy of the final result with the device's location.

There are two ways in which NAVIZON find location:

Wi-Fi and Cellular Positioning Mode – No GPS required. The requirement is that the mobile device is Wi-Fi- or cellular-enabled. (If GPS is available, then it can be used, too.)
GPS Positioning Mode – Using GPS signals when available for positioning. Plus, it allows users to collect, use and store GPS location data on their devices and sync it to the NAVIZON Network.

NAVIZON Network

NAVIZON Network provides wide-area wireless coverage thanks to a database that maps as many radio beacon identifiers to the physical location of the Wi-Fi access points and cellular base stations as possible. The NAVIZON Network community is growing rapidly providing a critical mass of users enabling the wide-area wireless coverage. As of the middle of 2006, NAVIZON had 20,000 users, constituting a 300% growth from the end of 2005.

Wi-Fi access points and cell towers give off a signal, just like a GPS satellite. Each Wi-Fi access point broadcasts a radio signal to announce its presence to devices within a range of around 100 meters. This signal incorporates a unique network address code that identifies the access point, which is sent out when hit with a blast of radio-frequency energy from the Wi-Fi card inside a mobile device. Even if the signal is too weak for a laptop to connect to, it can still get the ID, which it then compares to NAVIZON’s Network database and plots it on a map.

How is the NAVIZON Network built-out? The concept is simple; once installed, the NAVIZON application automatically maps the local wireless landscape by calculating specific locations for all wireless access points and cell phone towers in the area. The NAVIZON software memorizes the position of Wi-Fi base stations users come across as they would do for 'war-driving', but instead of just mapping them out, their position can be used later to assist NAVIZON in case the GPS signal gets lost and to increase accuracy. Basically, when GPS signals are available, the NAVIZON software uses them to construct a map of the Wi-Fi of landscape. When GPS signal is not available, the stored wireless coverage information is used for positioning even if there is no GPS signal at all. Note that the Wi-Fi map also provides geo-positioning information for all GPS based programs, even when GPS signal is not available.

Note that NAVIZON doesn't use the APs for anything other than the signals it sends, and no traffic is sent over these APs. There is no security concern having people sniffing access points and using them to get around. The sniffing is no different to what your Wi-Fi card does when you search for an access point: No attempt is made to get inside the Wi-Fi network itself.

Conclusion

The market for location-based services has begun to emerge but has been hampered to date by the limitations of traditional GPS-based positioning systems. NAVIZON is a great solution for those who suffer from GPS signal loss problems. As soon as the signal drops out, NAVIZON makes full use of Wi-Fi and/or cell tower positioning to provide a continuous and accurate data feed.

NAVIZON’s innovation arises from the fact that its map is both created, and constantly enhanced, by the users themselves. NAVIZON members (membership is free) are allowed access to a massive storage and retrieval repository containing highly accurate positioning data which is contributed from members around the world. Plus, the wide-open nature of the market means there is plenty of room for entrepreneurial innovation. NAVIZON makes this possible with its Location API.

NAVIZON makes widespread LBS adoption more possible than ever – no reliance on telecom carriers and network operators. Developers can build applications that can operate independently of third party constraints (e.g. buying additional hardware, requiring third party distribution, permission from entities like carriers, etc.) The greatest obstacle for developers in the pathway to market opportunity was the speed with which operators enable location and make that available to the development community at price points which make sense in the consumer market. Now with NAVIZON, there is no burden in achieving the “right” business/partnership model between the carriers / network operator and application providers; With NAVIZON the developer is the party that gains (wins.)