Indoor Location-Based Services In The Telecommunications Network

Abstract

‘Location-based services’ are services that take the location of mobile devices into account. Traditionally, these services have revolved around positioning and navigation. However, with the advent of smartphones equipped with GPS receivers, a number of innovative location-based services have come into the market and caught users’ interest.

Users spend nearly 90% of their time indoors and GPS receivers do not function well within buildings. Hence, there is a need for a reliable indoor positioning system. Alongside technological research, a study of indoor location-based services is also necessary.

‘Open Telco’ refers to the endeavour by mobile operators to follow in the footsteps of internet companies and embrace open innovation and open APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). Network service exposure and the ecosystem approach are believed to be critical to the future success of mobile operators.

This Thesis attempts to bring together these three dissimilar but related topics- indoor positioning, location-based services and network service exposure. This is done via the study of existing literature and the implementation of a service prototype.