Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Hybrid TOA–AOA Location Positioning Techniques in GSM Networks

  • Published:
Wireless Personal Communications Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Positioning algorithms and their implementation in mobile networks are being investigated in the literature due to their importance in location services. Nowadays, the need for superior accuracy has cast attention to hybrid positioning techniques. In this paper, we introduce a novel algorithm for the identification of NLOS propagation using both angle and time estimates, which leads to enhanced versions of the Time of Arrivals and Angle of Arrivals positioning methods. Furthermore, a novel GSM procedure for the implementation of the latter techniques is proposed. In contrast to specified network-based GSM solutions (U-TDOA), the proposed requires minimum modifications in the GSM Phase 2+ infrastructure and protocol stack, and therefore increases the upgrade flexibility and minimizes the implementation cost. The proposed GSM positioning procedure has been experimentally validated using a GSM emulator and the modified signalling messages given by a measurement tool of the emulator are exhibited. Finally, the enhanced cost functions are experimentally evaluated using several GSM-like, high-capacity simulation environments and the results have shown significant reduction of the location error compared to the conventional techniques.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Drane C., Macnaughtan M., Scott C. (1998) Positioning GSM telephones. IEEE Communications Magazine 36(4): 46–54

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. 3GPP TS 25.305. (March, 2002). Stage 2 functional specification of UE positioning.

  3. 3GPP TR 45.811. (June, 2002). Feasibility study on Uplink TDOA in GSM and GPRS.

  4. Zhao Y. (2002) Standardization of mobile phone positioning for 3G systems. IEEE Communications Magazine 40(7): 108–116

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Azaro R., Donelli M., Benedetti M., Rocca P., Massa A. (2008) A GSM signals-based positioning technique for mobile applications. Microwave and Optical Technology Letters 50(8): 2128–2130

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Caffery J.J., Stuber G.L. (1998) Overview of radiolocation in CDMA cellular systems. IEEE Communications Magazine 36(4): 38–45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Fang B.T. (1990) Simple solutions for hyperbolic and related position fixes. IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems 26(5): 748–753

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Feuerstein, M., & Pratt, T. (1989). A local area position location system. In International conference on mobile radio and personal communications, 11–14 December 1989 (pp. 79–83).

  9. Foy W. (1976) Position-location solutions by taylor series estimation. IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems 12(2): 187–194

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Turin G., Jewell W., Johnston T. (1972) Simulation of urban vehicle-monitoring systems. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology VT-21(1): 9–16

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Sakagami S., Ayoama S., Kuboi K., Shirota S., Akeyama A. (1992) Vehicle position estimates by multibeam antennas in multipath environments. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology 41(1): 63–68

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Blanz J.J., Papathanassiou A., Haardt M., Furió I., Baier P.W. (2000) Smart antennas for combined DOA and joint channel estimation in time-slotted CDMA mobile radio systems with joint detection. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology 49(2): 293–306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Chen, T. Y., Chiu, C. C., & Tu, T. C. (2003). Mixing and combining with AOA and TOA for the enhanced acurracy of mobile location. In IEE 5th European personal mobile communications conference, 22–25 April 2003 (pp. 276–280).

  14. Cong L., Zhuang W. (2002) Hybrid TDOA/AOA mobile user location for wideband CDMA cellular systems. IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications 1(3): 439–447

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Deligiannis, N., Louvros, S., & Kotsopoulos, S. (2007). Optimizing location positioning using hybrid TOA–AOA techniques in mobile cellular networks. In ACM international conference on mobile multimedia communications, MobiMedia, 27–29 August 2007 (Vol. 329, pp. 1–7).

  16. Porretta M., Nepa P., Manara G., Giannetti F., Dohler M., Allen B., Aghvami A.H. (2004) A novel single base station location technique for microcellular wireless networks: Description and validation by a deterministic propagation model. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology 53(5): 1502–1514

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Thomas, N. J., Cruickshank, D. G. M., & Laurenson, D. I. (2001). Performance of a TDOA-AOA hybrid mobile location system. In IEE international conference on 3G mobile communications, 26–28 March 2001 (pp. 216–220).

  18. Wann, C.-D., Yeh, Y.-J., & Hsueh, C.-S. (2006). Hybrid TDOA/AOA indoor positioning and tracking using extended Kalman filters. In IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference, VTC 2006, Melbourne, Australia, 7–10 May 2006 (Vol. 3, pp. 1058–1062).

  19. Chan Y.T., Ho K.C. (1994) A simple and efficient estimator for hyperbolic location. IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing 42: 1905–1915

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Wylie, M. P., & Holtzman, J. (1996). The non-line of sight problem in mobile location estimation. IEEE international conference on universal personal communications (ICUPC 1996), September 1996 (Vol. 2, pp. 827–831).

  21. Le, B. L., Ahmed, K., & Tsuji, H. (2003). Mobile location estimator with NLOS mitigation using Kalman filtering. IEEE wireless communications and networking conference (WCNC 2003), March 2003 (Vol. 3, pp. 16–20).

  22. Thomas, N. J., Cruickshank, D. G. M., & Laurenson, D. I. (2000). A robust location estimator architecture with biased Kalman filtering of TOA data for wireless systems. In IEEE international symposium on spread-spectrum techniques and applications, September 2000 (Vol. 1, pp. 296–300).

  23. Najar, M., Vidal, J. (2003). Kalman tracking for mobile location in NLOS situations. In IEEE international symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC 2003), September 2000 (Vol. 3, pp. 2203–2207).

  24. Xiong, L. (1998). A selective model to suppress NLOS signals in angle-of-arrival (AOA) location estimation. In IEEE international symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC 2003), 8–11 September 1998 (Vol. 1, pp. 461–465).

  25. Dropping, B. (2005). Changes in base station backhaul drive new synchronization solutions. RF Design Magazine, 48–56.

  26. 3GPP TS 02.71 v7.3.0. (March, 2001). Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+), Location Services (LCS), Service description, Stage 1.

  27. 3GPP TS 03.71 v7.11.0. (May, 2004). Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+), Location Services (LCS), Functional Description.

  28. 3GPP TS 04.31 v8.17.0. (January, 2005). Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+); Location Services (LCS); Mobile Station (MS)—Serving Mobile Location Center (SMLC); Radio Resource LCS Protocol (RRLP).

  29. 3GPP TS 04.71 v8.4.0. (July, 2002). Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+); Mobile radio interface layer 3 Location Services (LCS) specification.

  30. 3GPP TS 08.31 v8.1.1. (May, 2002). Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+); Location Services (LCS); Serving Mobile Location Center (SMLC)—Serving Mobile Location Center (SMLC); SMLC Peer Protocol (SMLCPP).

  31. 3GPP TS 09.31 v8.7.1. (May, 2004). Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+); Location Services (LCS); Base Station System Application Part LCS Extension (BSSAP-LE).

  32. NokiaTelecommunicationsOy1198. GSM 900/1800 BSS signaling training document.

  33. Caffery, J. J., & Stuber, G. L. (1994). Vehicle location and tracking for IVHS in CDMA microcells. In IEEE international symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications, PIMRC, 18–23 September 1994 (Vol. 4, pp. 1227–1231).

  34. Goud, P., Sesay, A., & Fattouche, M. (1991). A spread spectrum radiolocation technique and its application to cellular radio. In IEEE Pacific rim conference on communications, computers and signal processing, 9–10 May 1991 (Vol. 2, pp. 661–664).

  35. Holmes, J. (1982). Coherent spread spectrum systems. Wiley.

  36. Knapp C., Carter G. (1976) The generalized correlation method for estimation of time delay. IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing ASSP-24(4): 320–327

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Ziemer, R., & Peterson, R. (1985). Digital communications and spread spectrum systems. Macmillan.

  38. Heine, G., (1998). GSM networks: Protocols, terminology and implementation. Artech House Publishers.

  39. Mouly M., Paulet M.-B. (1992) The GSM system for mobile communications. Palaiseau, France

    Google Scholar 

  40. Flemming Hermann, P. (2007). Examining telia-sonera Denmark’s microcellular approach to solving specific special coverage projects for 2G/2.5G environments. In International conference on in-building & enhanced coverage solutions, May 2007.

  41. Wisely, D. (2007). BT convergence case study: Effectively deploying cellular/short range converged solution for advanced multimedia services. In International conference on in-building & enhanced coverage solutions, May 2007.

  42. Jakes W.C. (1994) Microwave mobile Communications. IEEE Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  43. Lee W.C.Y. (1997) Mobile communications engineering theory and applications (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  44. Aszetly, D. (1996). On antenna arrays in mobile communications systems: Fast fading and GSM base station receiver algorithms. PhD dissertation, Royal Institute Technology, Sweden, March 1996.

  45. Klukas R., Mattouche M. (1998) Line-of-sight angle of arrival estimation in the outdoor multipath environment. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology 47: 342–351

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Klein, A., Mohr, W., Thomas, R., Weber, P., Wirth, B. (1996). Direction-of-arrival of partial waves in wideband mobile radio channels for intelligent antenna concepts. In IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference, VTC 1996 (pp. 849–853).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electronics & Informatics (ETRO)-Interdisciplinary Institute for Broadband Technology (IBBT), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Pleinlaan 2, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium

    Nikos Deligiannis

  2. Department of Telecommunication Systems & Networks, Technological Educational Institute of Mesologgi, Nafpactos, Hellas, Greece

    Spiros Louvros

Authors
  1. Nikos Deligiannis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Spiros Louvros
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Spiros Louvros.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Deligiannis, N., Louvros, S. Hybrid TOA–AOA Location Positioning Techniques in GSM Networks. Wireless Pers Commun 54, 321–348 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-009-9728-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-009-9728-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation