In this paper we give an overview of the existing and upcoming positioning methods in the mobile environment. With the advent of mobile technologies, increased usage and expansion of mobile devices, mobile services and applications, among them also the so called location-based services, are gaining an increased amount of attention. The user context is an important element of personalization of future information retrieval systems, applications and services. We briefly present our scheme that could be deployed to obtain the user profile and context. An important factor for determination of the latter is an accurate positioning of a user in the environment which can be done by using different methods. Therefore, we have prepared a survey of the existing and upcoming possibilities. We present the state-of-the-art positioning methods and general ideas behind them, however comparisons among them are hard to make. It seems a method that will work well both in the indoor and in the outdoor environments does not exist. Positioning in the indoor areas is due to the nature of the environment namely harder to obtain and the needed precision is higher. Therefore, a combination of methods will be needed for accurate positioning for the future services and applications.
COBISS.SI-ID: 8571220
In the recent years we have seen an explosion in the mobile data traffic driven by significant improvements in the user experience and the flat-rate data plans. Although this has increased operators’ data revenue, it has also led to the decoupling of usage and revenue. As the usage increases, costs can now rise faster than revenues, leading to lower margins. This shift in the network economics management means that cost control has now become the primary strategic focus of many operators. This issue becomes even more important when deployment of the LTE network is on its way. Mobile operators are currently upgrading their existing infrastructure to meet the traffic demands and to ensure a high quality of experience for all mobile broadband users but under current economic conditions this is challenging and costly. Is LTE a must for operator’s investments plans already this year? What is a driving factor for LTE deployments on 800 MHz – improved capacity or better signal propagation – and how are these issues considered when LTE is a planned technology for the digital divide bridging in the rural areas?
COBISS.SI-ID: 8567892