Global Mobile Positioning Markets: Commercial, Military, Homeland Defense

BCC Research
October 1, 2007
SKU: WA1578566
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Beginning with the successful completion of the global positioning system (GPS) in the mid-1990s, other new technologies for determining the geographical coordinates of moving or fixed objects have been deployed or developed. This report refers to them collectively as mobile location technologies.

Mobile location technologies are able to locate points, objects or persons on or above the earth's surface by calculating the distances from one or more (usually at least three) reference points. These can be satellites orbiting in space, ground radio stations, cell phone towers, wireless LAN access points, or RFID receivers.

Each type of technology has its advantages and limitations, depending on the specific application. While they are, to some extent, competitive with one another, each technology has applications for which it is especially well suited. Additional mobile location technologies are being developed, many of them involving a combination of two or more existing positioning technologies.