Edinburgh Napier University

  GPS is a well-established technique for location-finding, but mobile phone-based methods are generally less expensive to implement, and can give reasonable accuracies. These techniques can thus be useful to network operators in providing services based on geographical locations, and also to users. This paper reviews the main handset location techniques used within a GSM network, and critically appraises them. The main techniques covered include Cell-ID, E-CGI, TDOA, AOA, TOA, OTA and Timing Advance (TA). It also outlines a practical experiment in the UK in locating finding, which uses TA signal to locate the handset. The results show how an experiment can be conducted to determine the error in the location measurement.