Location services architecture for future mobile networks

The next generation mobile networks and their services are being designed to easily accommodate the growth and changes in technology that will occur during their operational lifetime. One such service is the location service. This may be used to provide location information for subscriber services (e.g. summon a taxi to the subscriber's current location), for "emergency services" (e.g. summon medical assistance to the subscriber's location) and to assist the mobile network's internal operations (e.g. location dependent handover). Technology is rapidly developing in this area, both within the mobile networks and outside (e.g. satellite GPS). A client server architecture provides an efficient and flexible design that can accommodate both the growth in service requirements and the changes in technology that will occur within the mobile networks. As the service and the technology develop, the measurement process and the servers may be upgraded to introduce new capabilities. In this way the network operator is assured of maintaining the most efficient and up-to-date capabilities and technology for the services within their network. This paper reviews the client server architecture and operations developed within the 3GPP UTRAN "third generation" mobile standards and their applications to future communications networks.