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New approaches in GPS based location systems
 Anand Ramamoorthy Senior Manager, Car Infotainment and Telematics Group Renesas Technology America (formerly Hitachi Semiconductor) 450 Holger way, San Jose, CA 95134, USA Phone: 1-408-382-7624/1-408-930-6717 Fax: 1-408-382-7600 Mailing Address: 34926 Sea Cliff Terrace Fremont, CA 94555, USA Phone: 1-510-791-2681 (Home), 1-408-382-7624 (Work), 1-408-930-6717 (Cell) E-mail: anand.ramamoorthy@renesas.com, ramaman_anand@yahoo.com Introduction Since the completion of the global positioning systems (GPS) satellite network in the early 1990’s, there has been a proliferation of applications developed utilizing this technology. While military and defense related applications ruled the roost in the heydays of GPS technology, the last few years have seen most of the applications in the consumer and commercial space. The introduction of products with high volume potential such as cell phone (referred to as ‘handset’ in the rest of this paper) have given GPS technology a definite niche in terms of market economics. The E-911 mandate stipulated by FCC (Federal Communications Commission, United States) requires every cellular phone to be able to provide their location to assist in dispatching emergency help. This initiative has fuelled the emergence of creative technologies that combine the use of GPS as well as wireless carrier networks to provide high accuracy and reliable position information. This technology is also referred to as A-GPS (Assisted GPS). This paper takes a close look at some of these approaches from a technical standpoint and discusses their merits and weaknesses.
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