Technology Behind GPS Vehicle Tracking For Fleets – GSM
There are two main technologies when it comes to understanding how GPS fleet tracking works. The first is GPS, which stands for Global Positioning System. This technology is comprised of a network of satellites that orbit the earth, millions of GPS receivers here on earth, and a simple mathematical principle called trilateration. Through trilateration, any GPS receiver on the earth can find out its approximate location with signals from 3 different satellites. It does this by finding its distance from these satellites and calculating the only spot where all three signals could have come together. This process is the GPS in GPS fleet tracking.
This is how all GPS devices work, so what gives GPS fleet tracking its tracking element? To put this question another way, how does a device communicate the position information that it finds from the satellites to those that want to know where the device is located?
The solution to these questions is GSM, or the Global System for Mobile communications. GSM is currently the most popular cell phone network infrastructure on the globe. Some people think that around 80% of the world’s mobile devices work off of GSM networks. This means that GSM by far the most popular mobile technology network in the world. It is currently utilized by 3 billion people all over the world and it provides a digital signal for all forms of communication. To put this in terms that most people will understand, GSM is a 2G cell phone network and is the reason why text-messaging is so cheap.
GSM is important for our understanding of GPS tracking for fleets because it is so widely used all over the world. In this way GSM represents a data transmission infrastructure that is available to wide range of people in many different circumstances. When a fleet truck is on the road it will need some way to send its position data back to the office so that the owners can see where the GPS is locating the vehicle. They need this to better route their vehicles and make their operations more efficient. But when the data is not able to be transmitted over some type of wireless communications network then the fleet tracking system is not doing them much of a service.
The vast majority of fleet tracking devices will send their data back to their office in the following way. The GPS fleet tracking device gets three or more signals from satellites, which it then turns into some raw position data. It will then find a way to send that information back to the boss. It will do this by opening up a connection to a cell phone network, which then talks to the internet, which talks to the server of your fleet tracking service, which then talks to the internet, which then talks to the computer at your office. That is how fleet tracking works.
There are two integral parts to understanding GPS fleet tracking technologies. The first is GPS and this is how the location information is actually gathered. The second part if GSM and this how the location information is able to be tracked by someone else.
If you want to know more about GPS fleet tracking technologies there are several good resources available on the Internet that can better explain the concepts for people of all levels of understanding. There are a lot of different applications for this technology, but one that seems to have a lot of promise is small business fleet tracking. Research indicates that small businesses receive the largest benefit from implementing this technology.
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July 20th, 2010 at 6:41 am
[...] Technology Behind GPS Vehicle Tracking For Fleets – GSM There are two main technologies when it comes to understanding how GPS fleet tracking works. The first is GPS, which stands for Global Positioning System. [...]