CPS Moves to Improve Location Services

Cambridge Positioning Systems (CPS) is launching a range new products to improve the performance of satellite-based location technologies for GSM networks. Building on the company's standardised GSM solution Matrix, the new products will provide major performance improvements for A-GPS systems in terms of accuracy, coverage and time to fix a location.

Recent tests carried out by CPS - and supported by industry data - shows A-GPS accuracy performance diminishes rapidly when users move indoors or find themselves in urban "canyons." For example, while average location accuracy in an urban park was 43m - once users moved indoors or into heavily built up areas the system reverted to non-GPS techniques in order to provide the location. This resulted in accuracies between 150m and 250m. The CDMA systems tested reverted to a less accurate non-GPS technique to provide these results.

CPS is offering three products - Matrix, MatrixAssist and MatrixHybrid. Matrix provides the GSM A-GPS system with the equivalent high accuracy location technique used by CDMA A-GPS systems when insufficient GPS signals are available. Matrix Assist provides the necessary accurate timing to GSM A-GPS handsets, resulting in improved time to fix and better indoor performance.

Matrix Hybrid offers a "best of all worlds" solution - combining measurements from A-GPS, Matrix and Cell-ID to deliver high accuracy in the widest range of environments. Most importantly this product allows operation of E-OTD when A-GPS fails, thus offering comparable if not better performance than the CDMA A-GPS systems.

CPS Chief Executive Chris Wade said: "This is a natural extension to our Matrix high accuracy, low latency location technology. It is very clear from our own testing and industry feedback that A-GPS faces a number of critical performance issues which our solutions are able to solve.

"If A-GPS is to develop it must address these issues urgently - and we know that Matrix can provide the solution. Because it is a software only integration it offers tremendous benefits in terms of cost-effectiveness and end-user usability."

Posted to the site on 9th May 2003