SigmaOne Communications Corp. is one of many companies hoping to capitalize on the Federal Communications Commission’s Phase II E911 mandate requiring wireless carriers by 2001 to be able to provide emergency dispatchers with the location of 911 callers accurately within 410 feet.
Using Correlative Angle of Arrival technology, SigmaOne plans to develop, manufacture, deploy and support analog and digital wireless location networks for wireless carriers, infrastructure vendors and public safety answering points, said the company.
SigmaOne, founded in August, will draw on the experience of its partner-Tadiran Ltd., one of Israel’s largest electronics companies-to provide a location system based on AOA technology.
Tadiran has experience with military and commercial location systems that employ both Time Difference Of Arrival and AOA technologies, said SigmaOne. Tadiran Electronics Systems Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Tadiran, has built and fielded 50 AOA location systems worldwide.
SigmaOne founders Mark Licht, president, and Dennis Kahan, chief executive officer, also bring experience to the partnership that includes a joint venture with Pacific Telesis Corp. to form PacTel Teletrac, a successful land-based radio-location company supporting about 70,000 subscribers.
Kahan said SigmaOne selected AOA technology because of its reliability and accuracy as well as its proven performance in the military environment. AOA also can track locations using the voice channel, and it can determine locations based on information from two cell sites, rather than three, said Kahan.
The technology uses DSP-based processors and multipath algorithms to measure the direction of an incoming signal and pinpoint a location with a cross-vector from a second site.
One crucial feature of SigmaOne’s system is the large capacity it provides, Kahan said. The system can handle 500 locations per second per cell and provide the opportunity for carriers to provide value-added location-based services that require more capacity.
The system is compatible with Advanced Mobile Phone Service and Time Division Multiple Access networks. The company said it plans to release a system compatible with Global System for Mobile communications networks later.
SigmaOne said the system also will be marketed to law enforcement agencies as a tool to provide the location information necessary to coordinate crews during emergencies and natural disasters. The system could track the location of firefighters, police and emergency vehicles, while still providing enough capacity to handle the many bystanders who call in to report the incident.
Like other location companies, SigmaOne plans to implement information services into its location system, including location-based traffic information, mobile Yellow Pages, navigation and other specialized information. Carriers are interested in these applications, said Kahan, because they increase minutes of use and can be offered as enhancements to service packages.
Emergency services also might be added, including roadside assistance and stolen-vehicle recovery.
The company has completed the first generation of its TDF 2000 base station and initial field testing. Preliminary results of SigmaOne’s field test indicate its system can provide location accuracy to 207 feet 67 percent of the time.
An 8-site technical beta demonstration is planned this quarter in Los Angeles. The first commercial beta test is expected to occur during the fourth quarter, which will provide a fully integrated AMPS/TDMA Interim Standard-136 location solution, said the company.
The company also is developing products for Code Division Multiple Access networks.
