Spirent’s hybrid positioning test capabilities, including Wi-Fi Positioning, are built on industry-leading A-GPS/A-GNSS mobile device test solutions. These solutions have been created in a response to an overwhelming market trend toward hybrid positioning.

As location-based services gain more and more traction in the market, GPS/GNSS and Assisted-GPS/GNSS (A-GPS/A-GNSS) alone have become insufficient as the sole positioning technology in mobile devices. Several alternate positioning technologies exist to supplement and complement A-GPS/A-GNSS. Mobile device positioning must consist of a blend of technologies for the following reasons:

• End-users need to know their location awareness anywhere and everywhere
• A-GPS/A-GNSS performs poorly in indoor and deep urban environments
• No one location technology provides adequate performance in all locations

WiFi positioning has emerged as a cost effective positioning technology that can provide fast and accurate location of Wi-Fi capable devices in indoor and outdoor environments where A-GPS/A-GNSS positioning fails to deliver. Wi-Fi positioning utilizes existing Wi-Fi Access point infrastructure to quickly determine the location of the device with reasonable accuracy.

Cell ID positioning utilizes the cellular network infrastructure to obtain a fast and coarse location estimate. It is a good fallback when Wi-Fi and GPS/GNSS are not usable.

A-GPS/A-GNSS, Wi-Fi and Cell ID positioning are emerging as the key positioning technologies that comprise hybrid positioning capabilities for any location aware mobile device (although there are many others). The picture highlights the necessity for the coexistence of different positioning technologies.

Spirent provides a range of solutions for testing A-GNSS and Wi-Fi Positioning, including the new GSS5700 Wi-Fi Access Point simulator. Please refer to the “Solutions” and “Documents” tab for more information.