KSI Inc., a company with its roots in the defense industry, has developed a location technology that it hopes the industry will embrace as a possible solution to the Federal Communications Commission’s mandate on wireless E911.
According to Phase I of the FCC’s mandate, “carriers must have initiated actions necessary to relay a caller’s Automatic Number Identification and the location of the cell site receiving the 911 call.” Phase II requirements call for carriers by 2001 to “have the capability to identify the latitude and longitude of the mobile units making the 911 calls within a radius of no more than 125 meters.”
Based on the company’s angle of arrival technology, TeleSentinel determines the location of wireless telephones by monitoring either the control channel or voice channel assigned to the wireless phone. Using receiving antennas within the network, the system captures transmitted signals and determines their direction, or angle of arrival, within 10 seconds, said Chuck Hinkle, president of KSI.
The AOA information is then transmitted to a central station, which processes the data and stores it in a database. The location information also can be displayed on a digital map or in tabular formats, depending on how the user would rather monitor the information.
Because the system is based in the network, no modifications to existing phones are required to work with TeleSentinel, said the company. Advantages of the AOA approach include the ability to determine location with two receiver sites as well as the ability to provide a position fix with one receiver site when other information is available, such as signal strength, said the company.
In addition, KSI said testing of its technology has demonstrated the ability to work in urban environments where multipathing, or signal interference from obstacles such as buildings, occurs.
Annandale, Va.-based KSI is operating a prototype system consisting of two sensor stations and a control station in Fairfax County, Va. By monitoring the reverse control channel of the system, the sensor station can determine the number of the party being called, the Automatic Number Identification, the frequency of the allocated voice channel and the AOA of the control-channel signal. When information is received at multiple sensor stations, the location of the mobile phone can be estimated during call initiation, said the company.
While not listening to the contents of a wireless call, KSI’s technology also can monitor a voice channel in order to track a call from a phone that is moving. In addition, the technology can be used for reporting functions, such as traffic monitoring, after stripping away identifying information, said the company.
“In order to locate well, you must have enough time and bandwidth,” said Hinkle, noting that a defining feature of AOA is its tracking ability. “If you’re not talking, you’re not using the bandwidth.”
Like many wireless location companies, KSI envisions a broader use for its technology beyond 911 applications. In addition to providing equipment to college and university campuses and retirement communities for safety purposes, the company said its technology can be used for roadside caller assistance, fleet management services and transportation management systems services. The company also said its technology can provide revenue-producing applications such as search and rescue operations, location-sensitive billing, location of stolen phones and fraudulent users and navigation aid.
The company was granted a pioneer patent in 1986 for its Direction Finding Localization System technology, which gave it broad exclusive rights to the DFLS technology in the area of communications in a cellular structure.
The company last year spun off its defense work, which had consisted of consulting to the Department of Defense and the Federal Aviation Administration, and renamed it Defense Services Inc. KSI retained all intellectual property rights to the DFLS technology. Hinkle said the company has not licensed anyone to use the technology yet and is exploring different opportunities for providing the technology to the industry.
