Hope beyond the Hype

GNSS and Location-Based Services

Like the Galileo system itself perhaps, location-based services have proven to be an elusive, even vexing proposition — at least in the realm of GNSS mass market applications. From the outset, Galileo market analyses have identified GNSS-driven LBS as the primary opportunity for turning European consumers into customers. These early market studies considered the LBS market as ready for take-off, but experience and more recent analyses have shown that a number of technical and legal obstacles still prevent the LBS market from growing as rapidly as once assumed. This article outlines some basics of LBS, elaborates the reasons for its slow take-off, and finally provides some technical insights into how to remove these obstacles and enable a successful launch of LBS.

Günther Abwerzger, Elmar Wasle
(TeleConsult Austria)
Martin Fridh, Olaf Lem, John Hanley
(LogicaCMG)
Paul Hansen
(Cambridge Silicon Radio Limited)
Marc Jeannot
(CNES)
Laurent Claverotte
(Thales Alenia Space)

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A large body of research recognizes personal mobility as the primary future market for global navigation satellite systems in terms of the number of users and potential revenue. This expectation is especially strong for the upcoming European satellite navigation system Galileo, for which location-based service (LBS) applications have a prominent place in market research.

However, the past decade has seen many GNSS manufacturers and would-be service providers disappointed by the persistent failure of a profitable LBS mass market to emerge and grow rapidly. With the notable exception of a few national markets, particularly in Asia, this failure to thrive has stemmed from a combination of technical, legal, business, and market conditions that have thwarted development of widespread consumer LBS applications.

Previous GNSS activities in the field of LBS have primarily succeeded in commercial and professional applications (such as vehicle tracking and fleet management or remote monitoring of former prisoners out on probation or parole) or for safety and security purposes, such as emergency services. These are applications for which requirements can more easily be pinned down and where revenue streams are easier to estimate and project.

Moreover, regulatory activities and legal mandates have stimulated some large-scale uptake of GNSS technology— such as the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s E-911 mandate, which requires automatic location identification capability be made available to aid emergency callers using mobile phones.

Despite this slow start, the LBS mass market definitely holds the potential for providing substantial revenue streams. However, its development remains rather difficult to predict. This article will present some of the leading prospective consumer application markets for LBS, examine the leading causes of the still sporadic adoption of LBS in these mass markets, and describe efforts to mitigate the current technical limitations constraining the growth of consumer-driven LBS.

In particular, on this latter point we will consider assisted-GNSS (A-GNSS) technology that uses information — typically, satellite ephemerides and constellation almanac — provided through the communications network infrastructure. We also address the possibility of combining various non-satellite-based positioning technologies with GNSS to provide the quality of service needed to support large-scale development and adoption of LBSs.

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The LBS market has the potential to provide huge benefits to consumers. However, LBS needs to overcome technical and market obstacles before it can achieve the growth rates long predicted by market analyses. The AGILE project seeks to overcome these limitations by defining market drivers for LBS applications and, as detailed in this paper, to mitigate current technical limitations by combining various positioning technologies that can provide the quality of service needed to enable LBS.

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Manufacturers

Ergospace, a simulation tool for measuring the propagation of radio waves in 3d environments, is a product of Ergospace, Toulouse, France. The Matrix network-based positioning system and Enhanced GPS (EGPS) technology that combines Matrix and A-GPS into unified positioning system were developed by Cambridge Silicon Radio Limited (CSR), of Cambridge, United Kingdom. The Matrix positioning software was implemented in test handsets supplied by ZTE Corporation, Shenzhen, China and an SMLC provided by CSR. The A-GPS device and A-GPS server were provided by Thales Alenia Space of Paris, France.

Author Profiles

Dr. Günther Abwerzger graduated as a geomatics engineer and received his Ph.D. in technical sciences, both from Graz University of Technology (TUG), Austria. He first worked at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and, since 2001, with TeleConsult Austria. As project manager and engineer, Abwerzger deals mainly with R&D projects in the area of GNSS applications and algorithm development for GNSS simulation systems.

Martin Fridh, LogicaCMG, has a M.Sc. in electrical engineering from the Lund Institute of Technology. He studied at the Executive Management Program at Stockholm School of Economics and Business Economics at the University of Lund. With 7 years experience of LBS and more than 10 years of experience in project management of mobile solutions, Fridh leads the integration of a GNSS/LBS hybrid system as part of the AGILE consortium that is managed by the GNSS Supervisory Authority.

Dr. Paul Hansen is co-inventor of the Matrix and Enhanced GPS technologies mentioned in this article. He works on product marketing of GPS technology for Cambridge Silicon Radio Limited (CSR). His Ph.D. is in the field of kinematic GPS techniques. Prior to CSR, he worked on development of global differential GPS systems for marine survey companies.

John Hanley is a consultant within the LogicaCMG UK Galileo division specializing in the area of GNSS downstream applications. He is currently the overall project manager for the Galileo Joint Undertaking (GJU) 2nd call project in the area of Location Based Services (the AGILE project) and is involved in focusing LogicaCMG’s strategy in the area of future GNSS applications and services. He graduated from the University of Glasgow (UK) with a degree in topographic science before completing his M.Sc.E in Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering at the University of New Brunswick (Canada).

Marc Jeannot graduated as an electronics engineer from the ENAC (French National School of Civil Aviation) in Toulouse. After working in the field of embedded software development, he entered CNES, the French Space Agency, in 1989. He is now responsible for development of GNSS applications in the CNES Localization & Navigation System Engineering Department in Toulouse. More particularly, he is in charge of GNSS simulations activities and R&D projects, and involved in various national and European GNSS projects.

Olaf Lem was graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration at the Technical University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He serves as the standardization officer for the AGILE project. Lem has worked in the area of Geo-ICT for more than 10 years and represents LogicaCMG and the AGILE project in both the Open Mobile Alliance (Location Workgroup) and Open Geospatial Consortium.

Elmar Wasle graduated as a geomatics engineer from Graz University of Technology, Austria. Since then he has been with TeleConsult Austria, working as an engineer and project manager in the field of positioning and navigation. He also has a teaching position at the TUG and is working on his Ph.D.

Laurent Claverotte graduated as an electronics engineer from SUPELEC in Paris. He joined Alcatel Space as a telecom project manager. In particular, he was the project manager of the EC IST GEOCAST project. Claverotte is now the marketing LBS product manager for Thales Alenia Space. He is also in charge of the technical activities on the AGILE project managed by the GSA.