New MS-based E-GPS Combines High Accuracy All Environment Location And Low Cost Battery Drain In GSM/W-CDMA Devices

CPS (Cambridge Positioning Systems Ltd) today announces the launch of an MS-based version of its E-GPS high accuracy mobile location technology for GSM/W-CDMA networks – designed to deliver faster location fixes, lower cost implementations and reduced power and processing requirements.

E-GPS (Enhanced GPS) combines satellite-based location technology with CPS’s Matrix technology, which measures network-based signalling to deliver all environment coverage. Effectively, once an end user initiates a location request, they receive a sub-100m Matrix location instantly– then CPS’s [+/- 2 microsecond] fine time aiding allows for acquisition of GPS satellites within seconds.

The benefit of fine time aiding is that the device now knows where to look for a GPS signal. This enables a more aggressive search and is equivalent to 6 dB more sensitivity than can be achieved with any amount of GPS hardware correlator in the terminal. So powerful is this assistance that it also enables software-only GPS solutions to operate reliably in all environments.

This new version meets growing demand for seamless indoor/outdoor high accuracy performance – particularly to support personal navigation and tracking applications. With all of the positioning and timing applications, including calculation of fine time aiding, being performed inside the handset, power and processing requirements normally associated with GPS performance indoors or in urban areas is radically reduced – by up to a factor of 10 - for both initial acquisition of GPS signals and subsequent tracking.

It also means that handset developers can now look forward to smaller, lower cost, easy to implement E-GPS solutions that can be integrated within existing platforms without extensive re-design in a single implementation.

CPS CEO Chris Wade said: “Device manufacturers and operators tell us they want GPS – but in a form that is at the right performance and price point. They also say that 70 per cent of location-based services are being initiated indoors – and yet this is precisely the environment where GPS fails to deliver an acceptable end-user performance.

“What we can now say is that we have a simple handset-based solution that breaks through the $5 per device barrier and offers a far more compelling consumer proposition. With personal navigation a key growth area for operators, this new MS-based E-GPS provides an ideal solution – guaranteed performance indoors and outdoors, low battery drain and easy integration.”