INTRODUCTION

Mobile phone tracking tracks the current position of a mobile phone even on the move. To locate the phone, it must emit at least the roaming signal to contact the next nearby antenna tower, but the process does not require an active call. In positioning a mobile subscriber (Location Tracking), a mobile user is provided with information pertaining to its current position. It is one of the popular areas of wireless computing research. Researchers paid attention to Positioning Systems after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), mandated that all wireless carriers in the United States must provide a certain degree of accuracy in pinpointing location of mobile users who dial 911. The regulation was passed in 1996 and still most wireless carriers havent implemented such a system. The main reason behind this is the cost associated with the implementation of such a system. According to an estimate, a precise GSM based position system incurs a high cost (approx. U.S. $ 10,000) per base station..The services offered by positioning system include navigation and routing (e.g. plotting a path for the user from point A to point B), finding point of interest which is also called POI(finding a certain business or a building within the users vicinity), and geo-coding which means mapping the user to an actual geographic location. More sophisticated systems include assets management i.e. tracking a parcel or delivery truck and travel guides etc. The system in view here is an entry level system that handles proximity services and offers a geolocation to the users based on signal strength. The system offers following facilities to the user: (a) His/her current location, (b) Direction (angle / bearing) from point A to point B, (c) Distance (in kilometers) between point A and point B.

NEED FOR MOBILE TRACKING

Recent demands from new applications require positioning capabilities of mobile telephones or other devices. The ability to obtain the geo-location of the Mobile Telephone (MT) in the cellular system allows the network operators to facilitate new services to the mobile users. The most immediate motivation for the cellular system to provide MT position is enhanced in accident emergency services. The positioning of the mobile user could provide services like  Emergency service for subscriber safety.  Location sensitive billing.  Cellular Fraud detection.  Intelligent transport system services.  Efficient and effective network performance and management.  Police want to track any suspects.  To trace any misplaced mobile phone.  Employers & company owners use it to protect their business & to monitor their employees.  Married & single people use it to findout their spouses or fiancs are having an affair.  Parents use it to keep an eye on their children or on their old parent.

EXISTING TECHNOLOGIES & CONSTRAINTS

1)NETWORK ASSISTED GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM (GPS):
A mobile telephone can be located by a mobile telephone itself or through a mobile telecommunication network. To locate the mobile telephone by itself, the mobile telephone is provided with a GPS receiver to calculate its location in latitude and longitude coordinates based on the location information received from a satellite through the GPS receiver.  Increases the price and the size of the mobile telephone.  The load on the mobile telephone is increased.  Power consumption is high. All cell phones constantly broadcast a radio signal, even when not on a call. The cell phone companies have been able to estimate the location of a cell phone for many years using triangulation information from the towers receiving the signal. However, the introduction of GPS technology into cell phones has meant that cell phone GPS tracking now makes this information a lot more accurate. With GPS technology now more commonplace in many new cell phones, this means that the location of anyone carrying a compatible cell phone can be accurately tracked at any time. Cell phone GPS tracking can therefore be a useful feature for business owners and fleet managers who need to be able to keep track of their vehicle movements. Cell phone GPS tracking can also be a useful feature to the emergency services or police when responding to a 911 call from a GPS cell phone. For this reason, the FCC has legislated that wireless networks . As technology advance ever further,future feature will be even more powerful.Imagine GPS call phones used as a navigational device, based on the cell phone GPS tracking signal, they could be used to find your way to a location,calculate your location changes over time,from this calculate your estimated arrival time, suggest an alternative route & even phone the person you are calling to see with your ETA. Of course in car GPS navigation system provide location info for 911 cell phones,these are known as E911 calls can already perform many of these task,however it is the probability of cell phones that makes them go useful.For this technology, cell phone GPS tracking could also be used to locate the whereabouts of your children & offer protection to

elderly relatives should something happen & they need urgent assistance. These features will help to secure the future of cell phones GPS tracking providing advantages for all.

2) NETWORK BASED MOBILE POSITIONING:

In the case that the mobile telephone network locates the mobile telephone, at least three base stations (BSs) receive a signal from the mobile telephone; calculate the distances between the BSs and the mobile telephone using the arrival time of the signals at the BSs, then determine the location of the mobile telephone using the trigonometry. This location service is provided generally by a location data processor included in a base station controller (BSC). Upon a request for service about the location of a specific mobile subscriber, the BSC selects the three adjacent BSs surrounding the mobile telephone for use in the location service, and these selected BSs are ready for communication with the mobile telephone. The proposed system is a handset based technique that uses Network Measurement Report (NMR). NMR contains cell information such as serving cell ID, signal strengths monitored by the handset and the Timing Advance (TA)

Figure : Triangulating a mobile device using Timing Advance

parameters . The mobile device regularly forwards the NMR to the serving cell to assist the network to make handoff decisions. If the NMR can be retrieved, then on the basis of cell ids and received signal strengths from 3 or more BTS, it is possible to triangulate users location. This can be done by approximating the users distance from 3 or more locations on the basis of the signal strength received. Many researchers have tried to find a suitable relation between signal strength and distance. The main problem with signal strength is that it varies greatly according to terrain and changes drastically when a mobile device is present indoor due to multipath propagation1. There is no universal relation that can be used to calculate signal strengths for every location on the earth. For each location, site specific relations must be formulated.

3) TIME OF ARRIVAL (TOA):

The TOA method calculates the distance of a mobile telephone and a BS based on the TOA of a signal transmitted from the mobile telephone at the BS. It is assumed that the mobile telephone is located at the intersection point of three circles having the radius of the distances between the BSs and the mobile telephone. The distance is calculated by the following equation, Ri = C
i

= sqrt ( (xi X ) 2 + (yi Y) 2 ) where,

C propagation speed of electromagnetic wave,

i

propagation of time from the mobile telephone to ith base station,

xi, yi -- location of ith base station, X, Y mobile position.

Figure: illustrates a typical TOA method for locating a mobile telephone. 4) TIME DIFFERENCE OF ARRIVAL (TDOA): The TDOA method assumes that the TDOAs of a signal transmitted from the mobile telephone at the three BSs define a set of points on a hyperbola, and the mobile telephone is located at the intersection point of at least three hyperbolas.  The implementation requires accurate synchronization of each BS.  The signal of the mobile telephone often travels a longer path to a BS due to the multi-path fading characteristic and the Non- Line Of Sight (NLOS) effects.  In this method, three circles or hyperbolas do not meet at one point but overlap each other over an area. As shown in Figure 1, three circles C1, C2, and C3, whose radii are the distance between the mobile telephone M1 and at least three BSs T1, T2, and T3, are overlapped across an area. The mobile telephone M1 is located in the overlap area. One approach to locating the mobile telephone M1 in the overlap area 1 is to use a common chord, as shown in Figure. 2. When at least three circles C1, C2, and C3 are overlapped over an area without meeting at one point, the
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mobile telephone M1 is considered to exist at the intersection point of three common chords L1, L2, and L3. The above method using the common chord is not very accurate in locating the mobile telephone except in the case where the mobile telephone is at an approximate equal distance from the selected BSs and in a similar propagation environment to each respective BS.

Figure : illustrates the TDOA method of locating a mobile telephone. In the case that a first mobile telephone M1 is nearer to the first BS T1, as shown in Figure 2, the procedure will be described by a way of example. In Figure 2, two circles C11 and C21 are drawn based on the TOAs of a signal transmitted from the first mobile telephone M1 at the first and the second BSs T1 and T2. A first common chord L1 is defined by the intersection between the circles C11 and C21. But if the path between the first mobile telephone M1 and the second BS T2 is in an NLOS condition and the path between the first mobile telephone M1 and the first BS T1 is in a line-of-sight (LOS) condition, the common chord L1 is positioned far left from the actual location of the mobile telephone M1. The effect is the same in the opposite case. If the path between the first mobile telephone M1 and the second BS T2 is in the LOS condition and the path between the first mobile telephone M1 and the first BS T1 is in the NLOS condition, the common chord L1 is also far right from the actual location of the mobile telephone M1. In this method using a common chord involves a huge location error unless the paths between the mobile telephone and each BS have the same propagation environment.

5)FINGER PRINTING DATABASE:

Recently,signal fingerprinting has been adopted as another technique for locating a mobiledevice. This method implies that the received signal is extremely site-specific because of itsdependence on the terrain and intervening obstacles. So the multipath structure of the channel is unique to every location and can be considered as a fingerprint or signature of the location if same RF signal is transmitted from that location. This property has been exploited in propriety systems to develop a signature database of a location grid in specific service areas. The received signal is measured along this grid and recorded in the signature database. When amobile device moves in the same area, the signal received from it is compared with theentry in the database, and thus its location is determined. Such a scheme may also be useful for indoor applications where the multipath structure in an area can be exploited. A variation of this finger printing method was used for this project. Instead of a signature database, we used a constant k as a signature and derived different values of k at different locations using a GPS/OPNET. More than 40 values of k are calculated for a desired area and an average is computed. This value is then stored in a database along with its corresponding calculated signal strength. The value of k remains constant as long as the network parameters are unchanged. A change in network parameters inevitably ensures a change in the values of k, which must then be computed again. This is the drawback of fingerprinting method, it requires that the covered area be continually monitored and the signature database be continually updated.

6)LOCATION BASED SERVICE (FUTURE BASED SERVICE):

Mobile positioning, which includes location based service that discloses the actual coordinates of a mobile phone bearer, is a technology used by telecommunication companies to approximate where a mobile phone, and thereby also its user (bearer), temporarily resides. The more properly applied term locating refers to the purpose rather than a positioning process. Such service is offered as an option of the class of location-based services (LBS). The technology of locating is based on measuring power levels and antenna patterns and uses the concept that a mobile phone always communicates wirelessly with one of the closest base

stations, so if you know which base station the phone communicates with, you know that the phone is close to the respective base station. Advanced systems determine the sector in which the mobile phone resides and roughly estimate also the distance to the base station. Further approximation can be done by interpolating signals between adjacent antenna towers. Qualified services may achieve a precision of down to 50 meters in urban areas where mobile traffic and density of antenna towers (base stations) is sufficiently high. Rural and desolate areas may see miles between base stations and therefore determine locations less precisely. GSM localization is the use of multilateration to determine the location of GSM mobile phones, usually with the intent to locate the user.[3] Localization-Based Systems can be broadly divided into:
y y y y

Network-based Handset-based SIM-based Hybrid

Network-basedNetwork-based techniques utilize the service provider's network infrastructure to identify the location of the handset. The advantage of network-based techniques (from mobile operator's point of view) is that they can be implemented non-intrusively, without affecting the handsets. The accuracy of network-based techniques varies, with cell identification as the least accurate and triangulation as moderately accurate, and newer "Forward Link" timing methods as the most accurate. The accuracy of network-based techniques is both dependent on the concentration of base station cells, with urban environments achieving the highest possible accuracy, and the implementation of the most current timing methods. One of the key challenges of network-based techniques is the requirement to work closely with the service provider, as it entails the installation of hardware and software within the operator's
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infrastructure. Often, a legislative framework, such as E911, would need to be in place to compel the cooperation of the service provider as well as to safeguard the privacy of the information.

Handset-basedHandset-based technology requires the installation of client software on the handset to determine its location. This technique determines the location of the handset by computing its location by cell identification, signal strengths of the home and neighboring cells, which is continuously sent to the carrier. In addition, if the handset is also equipped with GPS then significantly more precise location information is then sent from the handset to the carrier. The key disadvantage of this technique (from mobile operator's point of view) is the necessity of installing software on the handset. It requires the active cooperation of the mobile subscriber as well as software that must be able to handle the different operating systems of the handsets. Typically, smart phones, such as one based on Symbian, Windows Mobile, iPhone, or Android, would be able to run such software. One proposed work-around is the installation of embedded hardware or software on the handset by the manufacturers, e.g. E-OTD. This avenue has not made significant headway, due to the difficulty of convincing different manufacturers to cooperate on a common mechanism and to address the cost issue. Another difficulty would be to address the issue of foreign handsets that are roaming in the network.

SIM-basedUsing the SIM in GSM and UMTS handsets, it is possible to obtain raw radio measurements from the handset[4][5]. The measurements that are available can include the serving Cell-ID, round trip time and signal strength. The type of information obtained via the SIM can differ from what is available from the handset. For example, it may not be possible to obtain any raw measurements from the handset directly, yet still obtain measurements via the SIM.

Hybrid-

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Hybrid positioning systems use a combination of network-based and handset-based technologies for location determination. One example would be some modes of Assisted GPS, which can both use GPS and network information to compute the location (although in most A-GPS systems all computations are done by the handset, and the network is only used to initially acquire and use the GPS satellites).

Operational purpose:
In order to route calls to a phone the cell towers listen for a signal sent from the phone and negotiate which tower is best able to communicate with the phone. As the phone changes location, the antenna towers monitor the signal and the phone is roamed to an adjacent tower as appropriate. By comparing the relative signal strength from multiple antenna towers a general location of a phone can be roughly determined. Other means is the antenna pattern that supports angular determination and phase discrimination. Newer phones may also allow the tracking of the phone even when turned on and not active in a telephone call-. This results from the roaming procedures that perform hand over of the phone from one base station to another. These were the main methods for tracking mobiles. There are some methods other : 1)RFID 2)By reverse mobile no. 3) in some cases, by mobile no. itself Etc.

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LOCATION TRACKING CURVE METHOD

1)PROPOSAL:

Figure : illustrates the configuration of a typical mobile telecommunication network. As shown in Figure 3, the mobile telecommunication network includes a several base stations (BSs) T 1 to T N for providing mobile telecommunication service to a mobile subscriber through a mobile telephone M1, a base station controller (BSC) for controlling the BSs T 1 to T N, and a mobile switching center (MSC) for connecting the BSC to another BTS or a PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). In a cellular mobile telecommunication network, the whole service area is divided into a several coverage areas having respective base stations (BS). Each BS coverage area is called a "cell." An MSC controls these BSs so that a subscriber can continue his call without interruption while moving between different cells. The MSC can reduce the time
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required for calling a subscriber by locating the cell of the subscriber. In case of an emergency like a fire, or a patient needing first aid treatment, the mobile subscriber should be accurately located. Tracking the location of a mobile subscriber within the boundary of a cell in a mobile telecommunication network is known as "location service." The method proposed by us for tracking the location of a mobile telephone using curves connecting the points where circles intersect one another, the circles radii being the distances between BSs and the mobile telephone. The steps involved are:

Figure:The signal strength value pattern

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a. Each base station nearer to a mobile telephone receives a predetermined signal from the mobile telephone and calculates the distance between the mobile telephone and the base station and the variances of time arrival of the signal at the base station; b. A circle is drawn to have a radius being the distance and the coordinates of the base station being the center of the circle; c. A pair of the first and the second base stations is selected among the base stations. A several location tracking curves connecting two intersection points between the selected circles corresponding to the first and the second base stations are drawn. One of the location tracking curves is selected using the variances of the first and the second base stations; d. The steps c. and d. are repeated for the other pairs of the base stations; e. The intersection points are obtained among the location tracking curves selected in step d. and e. and, f. The location of the mobile telephone is determined using the coordinates of the intersection points obtained in step e

Figure: Relationship between distance and RX Levels

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Figure :depicts a flowchart showing the steps involved in locating a mobile telephone. The several location tracking curves are parts of circles with centers near to the base station with smaller variances between the first and the second base stations. The circles formed by the location tracking curves have the centers on a line connecting the coordinates of the first and the second base stations. The larger variances between the variances of the first and the second base
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stations are compared to the variances of the several location tracking curves, and one of the location tracking curves is selected according to the comparison result. The location coordinates of the mobile telephone are determined by averaging the coordinates of the intersection points obtained in step (f).

2)DESCRIPTION:
When a location service is requested about a specific mobile telephone by a user or a network, the location data processor draws two circles C1 and C2 with their respective centers set at BSs T1 and T2 based on the TOAs of a signal transmitted from the corresponding mobile telephone M1 or M2 to the two BSs T1 and T2 located near the mobile telephone M1 or M2. The two circles C1 and C2 define a common chord L1.

Figure : illustrates a proposed method for mobile telephone location. However, if each mobile telephone M1 or M2 is placed in a different propagation environment with respect to the BSs T1 and T2, the location of the mobile telephone M1 or M2 can not be determined by the common chord L1. Therefore, we use location tracking curves TR1 and TR2 connecting the same two intersection points P1 and P2 of the two circles C1 and C2, instead of the common chord L1. The process of determining the location tracking curves will be explained
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later. The two curves TR1 and TR2 have their middle points intersecting the line ST, which connects the positions of the two BSs T1 and T2 and the parts of two circles C1 and C2 drawn to connect the two intersection points P1 and P2. Instead of the common chord L1, the location data processor uses the curve TR1 for the mobile telephone M1 and the curve TR2 for the mobile telephone M2. It prevents the location error caused by the multi-path fading or the NLOS path characteristics. If the radio propagation environment between the mobile telephone and the BS is poor due to the multi-path fading or the NLOS effects, the TOA of the received signal has error. The TOA error can be compensated by appropriately selecting a desired curve (reference circle).

3)DETERMINATION OF LOCATION TRACKING CURVE:

The NLOS environment has been compared with the LOS environment and we see that the variances of the TOAs of a signal transmitted from a mobile telephone are higher in the NLOS environment. By knowing this, appropriate curves can be selected by comparison between the variances of TOAs of an input signal. That is, the mobile telephone is nearer from the common chord L1 to the one with the larger variances out of the two BSs in Figure 5. Therefore, the BS with the smaller variances should be selected to draw reference circles based on the variances. For example, since the first mobile telephone M1 is near the first BS T1, the variances of the TOAs of a signal transmitted from the mobile telephone M1 at the first BS T1 will be higher than those of the signal at the second BS T2. Hence, the reference circle C1 is obtained around the second BS T2 with smaller variances.

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Figure :illustrates the determination of location tracking curve. From Figure 6, assuming that the first and the second BSs T1 and T2 selected for use in the location tracking are present at positions (x1, y1) and (x2, y2), respectively, in the seconddimensional coordinates, the location data processor draws the two circles C1 and C2 with the coordinates (x1, y1) and (x2, y2) of the two BSs T1 and T2 at their centers. The curve connects the two points P1 and P2 at which the two circles C1 and C2 intersect each other. The coordinates of the intersection points P1 and P2 are (xA, yA) and (xB, yB), respectively. Since the mobile telephone is near the first BS T1 with respect to the common chord L1, the variances of the TOAs of a signal transmitted from the mobile telephone at the first BS T1 will be larger than those of the signal at the second BS. Therefore, reference circles TR1 to TR4 are drawn with respect to the second BS T2 with smaller variances, as shown in Figure 6. The coordinates of the reference circle can be obtained (using minimum variance) which has its center on the line ST passing through (x1, y1) and (x2, y2) and passes through (xA, yA) and (xB, yB). Selecting the center of the reference circle is significant as the mobile telephone is located on the reference circle. The location data processor selects the desired curves (reference circles) with respect to the several BSs selected for location tracking. In Figure 6, as the real location of the mobile telephone deviates farther from the circle C2 with the second BS T2 at its center, the center of a reference circle is farther from the location of the second BS T2. That is, the center of
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a desired reference circle is farther from the second BS T2 in the case of a third mobile telephone M3 (curve C3) than in the case of a fourth mobile telephone M4.

4) REFERENCE CIRCLE SELECTION:

The variances of the TOAs of a signal which arrives at the two BSs T1 and T2 from different paths are used to find the curve on which the actual location of the mobile telephone is determined. If the TOAs of the signal at the first BS T1 from N propagation paths are t1, t2, . . . , tN, the first BS T1 calculates the variances W of t1, t2, . . . , tN. The location data processor compares the variances calculated by the first BS T1 with the variances calculated by the second BS T2 and considers that the mobile telephone is near to that BS with the larger variances (the first BS T2 in Figure 6). Hence, the reference circle has its center near to the BS with the smaller variances (the second BS T2 in Figure 6) on the line ST. With the larger variances, the center of a reference circle gets farther to the right from the center of the second BS T2. In order to select the desired curve, the location data processor initializes the reference circles with predetermined radii and the variances of TOAs of a signal transmitted from the mobile telephone located on the reference circles, and compare the preset variances with real variance measurements. The location data processor sets a several reference circles based on the distances between the mobile telephone and the BS with the smaller variances(the second BS T2) In Figure 6, as an example, the first to the fourth reference circles TR1 to TR4 have radii twice, three times, four times, and five times, respectively, of that of BS T2, where all these points of reference circles TR1 and TR4 are located along the line ST. The variances of the second BS T2 smaller than those of the first BS T1 are used as a criterion for selecting an optimal reference circle. Therefore, the location data processor predetermines the reference variances for the first to the fourth reference circles TR1 to TR4 to be compared with respect to the second BS T1. It is assumed in the following description that W 1, W 2, and W 3 are reference variances and W 1< W 2< W 3
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The location data processor compares the variances calculated by the two BSs T1 and T2 and selects the base station with smaller variances as a reference point to draw the reference circle. If the selected variances (those of the second BS T2) are W, the location data processor compares the selected variances W, with the preset reference variances W 1, W 2, and W 3.  If W <= W 1, the curve of the first reference circles TR1 is selected.  If W 1 < W <= W 2, the curve of the second reference circles TR2 is selected.  If W 2 < W <= W 3, the curve of the third reference circles TR3 is selected.  If W 3 < W, the curve of the fourth reference circles TR4 is selected. As we have seen, the location data processor selects the optimal curve (reference circle) for the two BSs among the several BSs, and selects another optimal circle for another BS pair, and so on. When curves are selected for all selected BS pairs, the location data processor obtains the intersection points among the selected curves as shown in Figure 7. However, as the selected curves do not intersect at one point due to the multi-path fading or the NLOS effects, the midpoint of these intersection points is determined as the location of the mobile telephone.

Figure :illustrates the positioning of mobile telephone by the proposed method.

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Tracking the location of a mobile telephone requires at least three BSs. As shown in Figure 7, the first to the third BSs T1 to T3 form the first to the third circles C1 to C3, respectively. The location data processor selects a first optimal curve TR1 for the first and the second BSs T1 and T2, a second optimal curve TR2 for the second and the third circles C2 and C3, and a third optimal curve TR3 for the first and third circles C1 and C3. As the three intersection points M1 (xA, yA), M2 (xB, yB), and M3 (xC, yC) are defined by the three curves TR1 to TR3, the location data processor considers the mobile telephone to be located at (x, y). While the three BSs are selected for the location service using the TOAs of a signal arrived at each BS from a mobile telephone has been described in the embodiment of the present invention, more BSs can be used to increase the accuracy in locating the exact position of the mobile station. If Nth intersection points are defined by location tracking curves obtained according to the present invention and an ith intersection point is at (xi, yi), coordinates (x, y) indicate the location of the mobile telephone. After the location of the mobile telephone, that is, the intersection points among the curves are obtained, the location data processor represents the intersection points in the latitude and the longitude coordinates and transmits the position coordinates to the network (BS/BSC/MSC) and the mobile telephone.

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CONCLUSION
Our proposal is advantageous in that the location of a mobile telephone can be accurately tracked even in the multi-path fading and the NLOS environment, by using more accurate tracking curves connecting the intersection points among circles with the radii being the distances between corresponding BSs and the mobile telephone in a cellular mobile communication system. We have described about accurate positioning of mobile telephones, which can be used for several applications. The important considerations to be undertaken while selecting a location based technology are location accuracy, implementation cost, reliability, increasing functionality.

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REFRENCES
1) http://www.opnet.com a web site reference to OPNET Modeler. 2) Maurizio A. Spirito, Alberto Guidarelli Mattioli, Preliminary Experimental Results of a GSM Mobile Phones Positioning System Based on Timing Advance, IEEE VTC 99, vol. 4, pp. 2072-2076, 1999.4) 3)www.google.com 4)www.ieee.org 5)www.wikipedia.com

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