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Gps Tracking Solutions: The Main Elements In A Gps Traacking System. Part 2.
By Juan Olano
In the first part of this series of 10 articles I explained the differences between Navigation Systems and Tracking Systems, and how they are two completely different of implementations of Location Based Services. In this second article I will develop some additional concepts related to the elements that constitute a Tracking System. There are 3 main parts to a Tracking System:
- A device or Tracker, which receives the location information and then delivers it to a software application.
- A data transmission system, which takes the information provided by the Tracker, and delivers it to the software application.
- A Software Application, which presents to its users the data recollected by the Tracker in several formats including maps and reports.
This article will present the main components of a Tracking Solution, and will start expanding on the first component: Trackers. It will take me this article and the next one to go in detail over devices.
GPS Devices
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In this section I will define what a Device, and how they work; after that I will present the types of Trackers, including most of the features that these devices offer, and my opinion in regards to each type.
At its simplest definition, the device, or better the tracker, is the component in charge of receiving the information about the location of the vehicle, and providing this data to the Tracking Application through the Data Transmission System (which will be explained in coming articles). Trackers are usually small boxes (metal or plastic) that can be the size of a man's wallet, or a little bigger. All of them need at least one antenna (GPS antenna), and most of them need an additional antenna to enable the data transmission module. So this leads to a first classification of Trackers:
-Full satellite trackers. This type of trackers will use satellites to receive and transmit data.
-Hybrid trackers. This type of trackers will use satellites to acquire location (we will see some variations here later in this article), and another method to transmit the data (a data modem, a data port to download the data, etc).
On the next article I will expand on these concepts.
So, the main task of a Tracker is to provide information of the location of a vehicle or an asset, or a person. The location of the units is usually acquired from the satellites,
but there is another method based on triangulation with cell towers to calculate locations. Getting the location from satellites is the most accurate mechanism, providing a minimal margin of error most of the times (from 2 up to 50 feet). location can be acquired anywhere in the world. The only down side for this location technology is that the antenna has to have a view to the sky. For example, if the vehicle gets into a garage, most probably there will not be locations available.
Getting the location based on a triangulation with the cell towers (those that are also used by our cell phones to transmit voice and data) has a bigger margin of error (up to a few hundred feet), making it a not very accurate location mechanism. This type of location also requires the presence of the named cell towers to work. The upside of this mechanism is that it will perfectly work within buildings, which is not the case for satellite location. Some Trackers are designed to work with both location mechanisms, creating a new concept called Assisted (AGPS).
GPS Trackers can be divided into these main three types: Passive Trackers, PING Trackers, and Live Trackers. Also, some devices have more capabilities than just getting the location of the vehicle.
In this article I have dissected a Tracking solution into three main components: a Tracker, a data transmission system, and a Tracking application. I have also started exposing the details of Trackers, specifically the two main ways to locate a vehicle. Finally, I introduced two more elements to consider in Trackers: types of trackers and advanced features of a device. Article Source: Article Beam - a service of A1 Web Server Web Hosting Mr. Olano, with over 10 year in Tracking Industry, deep knowledge of wireless communications, tracking devices, map engines, and contact with over 2,000 companies that adopted GPS, earned him a position as expert of Tracking Technologies. Visit him at www.trackingsolutionsonline.com and www.geosoftusa.com .
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