A Conceptual Architecture for Advanced Location Based Services in 4G Networks

The combination of wireless mobile service and spatial information service introduces location-based services (LBS). LBS utilizes GIS, spatial positioning and embedded technologies in mobile computing environment to provide mobile terminal users location relevant information. The purpose of this paper is to design a framework supporting advanced LBS over 4G mobile-IP networks, with the transition of existing LBS services to an all mobile-IP based architecture. The architecture, compositions and challenges for LBS in 4G are discussed. The detailed functions of each component are presented. On the base of this, the research points in implementation including positioning methods, new service management model, mobile spatial data compression and transmission, data cache in mobile terminals are also proposed.