https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookies Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • Microwave/RF
    • T&D World
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Omdia Crit Comms Circle Podcast
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
    • Sponsored content
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Why Attend
    • Exhibitor Listing
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Join the Event Mailing List
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookies Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

content


Location technologies: Charting new directions for fleet tracking

Location technologies: Charting new directions for fleet tracking

Wireless mobile location technologies, particularly commercial and public safety fleet applications, are exhibiting more sophistication in accuracy, vehicle
  • Written by Urgent Communications Administrator
  • 1st September 2000

Wireless mobile location technologies, particularly commercial and public safety fleet applications, are exhibiting more sophistication in accuracy, vehicle status and location context. Adoptions of commercial applications for automatic vehicle location (AVL) and location mapping are increasing exponentially. New hardware and software releases offer fleet managers additional improvements in safety, productivity and profitability. Some of that profitability can reflect back on the service providers as well.

Escalating exactitude

This spring, users and suppliers of Global Positioning System (GPS)-based tracking systems finally came into their own. At midnight, May 1, GPS became, for all intents and purposes, a civilian technology. At that moment, the U.S. military, the titular owner of the GPS satellite network, was ordered by presidential decree to turn off the selective availability (SA), or signal scrambling, which limited the accuracy of non-military equipment. Because of SA, differential GPS, using ground-based reference stations to improve accuracy, has been used for years as a “workaround” to bolster accuracy. The elimination of SA increases existing receiver accuracy by as much as 10 times. The government has speculated that GPS readings will be more accurate than U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps.

Some estimates for the GPS market see it doubling in just three years, becoming a $16 billion industry. Accelerating the boom in the United States are the FCC’s phased requirements for accuracy in locating civilian wireless communications to enable E9-1-1 and emergency response.

Many technologies to enable E9-1-1 location will be GPS-based, but network-based, time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA) applications continue to increase. TeleCorp PCS and TruePosition, King of Prussia, PA, are currently conducting a market trial of TruePosition’s TDOA wireless location system in New Orleans. TruePosition’s technology has been deployed in analog 800MHz, analog/TDMA 800MHz and analog/CDMA 800MHz systems, but the New Orleans trial is TruePosition’s first deployment in a 1.9GHz PCS TDMA system.

TruePosition also conducted field trials with Bell Atlantic Mobile in Pennsylvania earlier this year. That study, with an 18-site CDMA system, resulted in location accuracies to 80m. Bell Atlantic is following up with further testing in New York City and a full-scale market trial in Philadelphia.

FleetASAP, a service of @Road, Fremont, CA, offers location to within 30m for monitoring, messaging, reporting and scheduling capabilities for business fleets. The system platform combines GPS, wireless communications and the Internet into an integrated network.

Vehicle status

The basic need to establish a vehicle’s location is being enlarged with emphases on efficiencies in fuel, employee time, employee safety and loss prevention. This requires expanded features in software, including user-defined alarm or message functions. Vehicle operation characteristics can also be tied into AVL information. Some systems allow data downloads to create fleet activity reports.

Fleet Management 2000, for example, provided by Kansas City, MO-based Securicor Wireless, is software that supports vector maps, locates addresses and finds the closest vehicle to a target location. It allows customization of maps with buildings, boundaries and address points, and it can be set to search for street intersections. The software can change the color of displayed vehicle icons to correspond with status messages and activate an alarm when a vehicle is speeding, inactive or stopped. Alarms can also be triggered if a fleet vehicle is out of its assigned territory, or just off-route. Even collisions can be linked back to the alarm system.

Fargo, ND-based IDA has released its Trakit Smart Card for the capture of GPS-AVL data from vehicles. The card, which incorporates an embedded read/write computer chip, is inserted into either a vehicle activity logger or a real-time fleet monitoring unit, where GPS-AVL location and time data are recorded. Once transferred to an office computer, the card’s data can be processed to create fleet management reports as well as to provide front-end data for billing, costing, payroll and preventative maintenance.

IDA also released Fleetsync Trakit for use on Kenwood Communications’ Fleetsync radio systems. The GPS fleet management system incorporates Fleetsync status and text messaging. Real-time tracking of fleet vehicles on a digital map allows the dispatcher to assign jobs to the closest fleet units. Routes of fleet vehicles can be replayed on screen to review activity. Data records are captured at the dispatcher computer, or they can be downloaded from the buffer in the vehicle GPS unit to create fleet management reports.

Geiger Communications, Melbourne, FL, has introduced its G-Track GPS-AVL system, which includes mobile and base interface modules, 12-channel active antennas and a Windows-based G-Track software package. The proprietary software allows for the addition of multilayer maps to provide fleet managers with information such as visual vehicle location. The software creates files, storing all data for each unit for future reference.

The system can be interfaced with new or existing radio platforms, including conventional, trunked and cellular systems. Incorporated into the system are individual polling, group polling and address-find features. A mobile interface feature offers memory to store vehicle locations to help manage fleet vehicles that travel out of radio coverage. The system includes I/O ports to monitor or control various peripherals and an RS-232 port for additional mobile data accessories.

CES Wireless Technologies, Winter Park, FL, has also developed a number of fleet-management location products. These include GPS-AVL modules with integrated wireless data modems, combination GPS terminal and credit card validation modules, and combined GPS and alphanumeric messaging terminals. CES’ Power-Trak mapping software displays information for the dispatcher on a color-coded, high-resolution map. Real-time vehicle display is augmented by pan, zoom and scroll functions to change views from 100-mile regions down to 200-foot close-ups.

Although fleet tracking was initially perceived as cost-effective for only those operations with dozens or hundreds of vehicles on the move, more systems are being designed to be scalable. San Jose, CA-based Airlink Communications, for example, has designed its Airlink Tracking System (ATS) to accommodate fleets of as few as 10 to 25 vehicles.

ATS combines GPS and CDPD in an open system that allows simultaneous use of the in-vehicle device, Airlink Pinpoint, as a communications device for an MCT, a POS terminal or any MDT that uses an RS-232 serial line to send and receive data. The system can play back any log, vehicle or vehicle group record over a selected time interval. It also tracks vehicle velocity and allows the dispatch team to monitor traffic speed on major roadways. Dispatch can then divert drivers away from traffic congestion, which saves time and money.

Location in context

“I know where I am, but what else is here?” Simply knowing the Cartesian coordinates of a vehicle is no longer enough. The refinement of geographical information software (GIS) by groups like Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), Redlands, CA, and others, makes it possible to provide a context for a location. Mapping software can now incorporate political (boundary), topographical, hydrological, climatological and meteorological adjuncts. Locale-specific information, such as building configurations (as wireline or 3D representations) and the presence of hazardous materials, utilities infrastructure and other information is of obvious assistance to the dispatch of fire, ambulance and law enforcement fleets. In the case of law enforcement, crime frequency analysis mapping is now being tied into dispatch AVL functions to assist directed street patrol.

Map-centric software is increasing in availability for both civilian and emergency services use. Laval, Quebec-based AVel-TECH, for example, recently was awarded a contract to provide location software to the ambulance fleet of Nova Scotia Emergency Health Services. The software allows both the target location and the vehicle’s current position to be simultaneously displayed in the vehicle and at dispatch.

These new mapping applications will rapidly extend to commercial dispatch as well, linking fleets with resources and customer locations.

Location data mining

Finally, mandated location requirements can be turned into an advantage for commercial service providers. That is, the FCC’s phased requirements for E9-1-1 capabilities can be exploited commercially by cellular, PCS and CSMR entities. The usefulness of locating a vehicle is not restricted to emergencies. Location data can be used to plan future base station sites and to predict network load.

Companies such as Cell-Loc and Lucent Technologies have been advocating location-sensitive services, such as competitive billing structures, based on geographic service areas. Databases can be compiled showing users’ proximity to specific base stations, or cell sites, and frequency of use. This data mining can also be shared with other commercial enterprises. As new wireless application protocols (WAPs) and other Internet-related devices are rolled out, businesses, such as garages and truck stops, will be able to target fleet activity that frequents their geographic locations. This may encourage them to offer competitive rates for goods and services, to the benefit of both themselves and the fleet manager.

Tags: content

Most Recent


  • Location technologies: Charting new directions for fleet tracking
    Newscan: Securing the Internet of Things is quite a challenge
    Also: EWA requests dismissal of 900 MHz applications; TIA names tech and policy priorities for 2014; IJIS Institute names Shumate Award winner; App makes bus waits more tolerable; a Blackberry comeback may be in the offing.
  • Location technologies: Charting new directions for fleet tracking
    Newscan: FCC certifies Carlson Wireless's white-space radio
    Also: Congress looks to revamp telecom law; Obama to place some restraints on surveillance; IEEE to study spectrum-occupancy sensing for white-spaces broadband; Major Swedish transport operator opts for Sepura TETRA radios; RFMD to partner on $70 million next-generation power grid project; NENA opens registratiuon for "911 Goes to Washington."
  • Location technologies: Charting new directions for fleet tracking
    Newscan: A look at the critical job of 911 dispatchers
    Also: NYC launches website for tracking 911 response times; Oregon implements 911 on pre-paid cell phones; LightSquared wants to keep spectrum assets; Harris receives multiple government orders; FCC extends rebanding financial reconciliation deadline; Zetron gear at core of communications system upgrade; Ritron debuts wireless access control system; EWA seeks policy review of VHF vehicular repeater system deployments.
  • Location technologies: Charting new directions for fleet tracking
    Newscan: Average peak data rates of 144 MB/s average realized in tests with CAT 4 LTE device
    Also: Verizon, T-Mobile to swap unused spectrum to improve coverage; Internet giants oppose surveillance--but only when the government does it; FCC Chairman says incentive auction will be delayed until middle of 2015; FCC chair announces staff appointments; Alcatel-Lucent names Tim Krause as chief marketing officer; New Jersey county deploys TriTech CAD system; Toronto airport deploys 26-position Zetron console system;

Leave a comment Cancel reply

To leave a comment login with your Urgent Comms account:

Log in with your Urgent Comms account

Or alternatively provide your name, email address below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • RugGear: Contributing to the future of mission-critical broadband communication review and market vision
  • Photo gallery: 2014 Communications Marketing Conference (CMC) in Tucson
  • Location technologies: Charting new directions for fleet tracking
    Top 5 Stories - Week of Sept. 22
  • Location technologies: Charting new directions for fleet tracking
    RCA plans to expand this year's Technical Symposium

Commentary


LTE and liability: Why the fire service must move forward with digital incident command

  • 2
6th May 2022

Partnership and collaboration must be the foundation for emergency communications

18th April 2022

FirstNet success means no hypothetical ‘shots’ need to be fired, Swenson says

22nd February 2022
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


UrgentComm

Sesame Solar leverages mobile solar, hydrogen to power efforts beyond the grid dlvr.it/ST8m3K

1st July 2022
UrgentComm

Newscan: On front lines, communications breakdowns prove costly for Ukraine dlvr.it/ST7fnC

30th June 2022
UrgentComm

China-backed APT pwns building-automation systems with ProxyLogon dlvr.it/ST6q7m

30th June 2022
UrgentComm

Samsung fills its 2G hole in new challenge to Ericsson and Nokia dlvr.it/ST6hBK

30th June 2022
UrgentComm

Militarized drone swarms coming dlvr.it/ST6dNz

30th June 2022
UrgentComm

Take American City & County’s budgeting survey dlvr.it/ST6Yxb

30th June 2022
UrgentComm

Final cases made about Airwave, ESN, before CMA issues provisional decision on Motorola Solutions dlvr.it/ST4Q6X

29th June 2022
UrgentComm

Polaris Wireless: Manlio Allegra talks 911 Z-axis tech, future IoT opportunities dlvr.it/ST1384

28th June 2022

Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • Microwave/RF
  • T&D World
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookies Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2022 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X