IMPLEMENTATION OF GEO

LOCATION ALGORITHM USING

NETWORK SIMULATOR

COURSE INSTRUCTOR: DR. SUMAM DAVID

PROJECT GUIDE: MR. N.S.V. SHET

BY: JOYJIT MUKHOPADHYAY (07EC27)

VIGNESH PURANIK (O7EC67)

SRUJAN REDDY (07EC70)

DATED: SEPTEMBER 9, 2010

OBJECTIVE
To implement the geo location algorithm using network simulator successfully.

MOTIVATION
Travellers around the world are often unfamiliar with the location they are in and they find it
pretty difficult to commute between towns and cities. Google Earth, Wikimapia, Google
Maps, etc are great in today’s world, but wouldn’t you want to get the exact location of where
you are or where you want to go, or which are the best eating joints or cafés one can visit in
the area? It will be wonderful if we can actually find what good tourist places are in your
area and to see what is on today’s menu at the nearest café.

In the future, most of the cell phones will carry the GPS chipset, but the services will be
pretty expensive, since the processing of the maps will be difficult.

This algorithm makes use of the base stations present all around the country. The mobile
phones will connect to these base stations and get their present location and can send a query
for any other location they require.

Finding our own location through a device has been something we have all been dreaming of
and when it is finally come in reality, we are thrilled! But the only problem about the GPS
system is cost, the fact that there has to be a GPS receiver in the picture and not everyone can
access it easily. So, we came out with this simple solution. If mobile phones can
communicate with the base stations and find their location, it would be a lot easier. The
nearby base stations exchange few messages and with the use of this algorithm, the mobile
phone can receive the information, whether it is the location or even the map of the area.

BACKGROUND

Geolocation: Geolocation is the identification of the real-world geographic location on an

object, such as a cell phone or an Internet-connected computer terminal. Geolocation may
refer to the practice of assessing the location, or to the actual assessed location. Geolocation
is closely related to positioning but can be distinguished from it by a greater emphasis on
determining a meaningful location (e.g. a street address) rather than just a set of geographic
coordinates.

Handoff: In a cellular telephone network, handoff is the transition for any given user of
signal transmission from one base station to a geographically adjacent base station as the user
moves around. In an ideal telephone network, each end user's telephone set or modem (the
subscriber’s hardware) is always within range of a base station. The region covered by each
base station is known as its cell. The size and shape of each cell in a network depends on the
nature of the terrain in the region, the number of base stations, and the transmit/receive range
of each base station. In theory, the cells in a network overlap; for much of the time, a
subscriber's hardware is within range of more than one base station. The network must
decide, from moment to moment, which base station will handle the signals to and from each
and every subscriber's hardware.

Each time a mobile or portable cellular subscriber passes from one cell into another, the
network automatically switches coverage responsibility from one base station to another.
Each base-station transition, as well as the switching processor sequence itself, is called
handoff. In a properly functioning network, handoff occurs smoothly, without gaps in
communications and without confusion about which base station should be dealing with the
subscriber. Subscribers to a network need not do anything to make handoff take place, nor
should they have to think about the process or about which base station is dealing with the
signals at any given moment.

Network Simulator: Network simulators serve a variety of needs. Compared to the cost
and time involved in setting up an entire test bed containing multiple
networked computers, routers and data links, network simulators are relatively fast and
inexpensive. They allow engineers to test scenarios that might be particularly difficult or
expensive to emulate using real hardware- for instance, simulating the effects of a sudden
burst in traffic or a DoS attack on a network service. Networking simulators are particularly
useful in allowing designers to test new networking protocols or changes to existing protocols
in a controlled and reproducible environment.
TARGET SPECIFICATIONS
We are planning to implement a specific algorithm to achieve our objective. We will create
artificial scenarios for this purpose. The results will be obtained by testing this algorithm in
different artificial terrains created on network simulator.

APPROACHES

Unlike the Google or Wikimapia approach where we have to hunt our way to find our exact
location our approach is to make use of the existing base stations/access points and WSN
nodes to locate a user’s device. Once the user’s device coordinates are received data down
loading begins to provide him the area maps on request. Using the algorithm as shown below,
we are planning to go about with the simple approach of creating scenarios in NS-2 and
modify the algorithm accordingly to obtain the maps and other details necessary.
FUNCTIONAL DIAGRAM
Geo location algorithm using BS's

users query about self

location sent to BS

BS k nows the
approximate location

BS informs MSC about

query and ask s whether
other BS's in the vicinity
are Rx MS's pilot signals

Inform all BS's connected

MSC sends to MS to use DOA/TOA
YES
answer to Method to locate Mobile
other BS's are
query Devices exact location
Rx MS's Pilot

NO
other BS's
are not Rx
MS's Pilot
use DOA or TOA Is location
method to locate identified NO
Mobile Device by
sending search signal

YES

MSC sends location info

and area map to all
connected BS's

Download area map &

location info
to MS

END
REFERENCES
1. Location maps on cellular phones using BS’s handoffs and application softwares.
Authors: N.S.V.Shet, Prof.K.Chandrasekaran , Prof. K.C.Shet
NITK,Surathkal
2. Marc Greiss tutorial
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geolocation

4. www.isi.edu/nsnam/ns