Mobile Agent Location Breadcrumbs for Unreliable Network Tracking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing Location-Based Services (LBS) technologies face challenges in accurately tracking mobile devices in environments with unreliable network access, particularly in Wi-Fi networks where wireless access points are not fixed, leading to inefficiencies in radiolocation techniques.
Innovation Solution
Deployment of a mobile agent that uses location breadcrumbs, stored in a database, to predict and report the location of a mobile device, even when network access is unreliable, by maintaining a database of past location reports and historical accuracy to estimate the device's position with varying degrees of certainty.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If radiolocation techniques are used in Wi-Fi networks, then location tracking capability is enabled, but accuracy deteriorates because wireless access points are not fixed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces mobile agents as intermediary entities that reside on mobile devices and autonomously collect location information. These agents act as mediators between the mobile device and the tracking system, gathering location breadcrumbs from multiple sources (GPS, cellular, Wi-Fi) and reporting them to a central server, thereby enabling reliable tracking despite the instability of Wi-Fi access points
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by deploying mobile agents to mobile devices in advance. These agents proactively collect and store location breadcrumbs before tracking is needed, building a historical database of location data that can be used for later prediction and tracking, thus preparing the system ahead of time for reliable location monitoring
2Measurement precision
If GPS technology is used for location tracking, then measurement precision is improved, but use of energy increases due to satellite signal reception and processing
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies partial action by using GPS only when necessary rather than continuously. The mobile agent selectively activates GPS based on predefined conditions such as when the device enters a tracking zone or when other location methods are insufficient, thereby achieving accurate location tracking while minimizing energy consumption through selective rather than continuous GPS usage
Solution Approach 2:
The mobile agent implements periodic location sampling rather than continuous tracking. It collects location breadcrumbs at intervals and uses predictive algorithms to estimate position between samples, reducing the frequency of energy-intensive GPS activations while maintaining acceptable tracking accuracy through periodic updates combined with prediction
3Reliability
If continuous location reporting is implemented, then reliability of tracking is improved, but loss of time increases due to frequent network communications
Solution Approach 1:
The mobile agent performs preliminary actions by continuously collecting and storing location breadcrumbs in local memory even when network connectivity is unavailable. This pre-caching of location data ensures that when the device comes back online, the agent can immediately report accumulated location information without requiring continuous real-time network communication, thus maintaining tracking reliability while reducing network overhead time
Solution Approach 2:
The mobile agent serves as an intermediary buffer between the mobile device and the tracking server. It autonomously manages location data collection, storage, and transmission timing, intelligently batching multiple location reports together or deferring transmission until network conditions are favorable, thereby reducing the frequency of individual network communications while maintaining continuous tracking capability
Data Source
AI summary
A method, a computer readable medium and a system for using a mobile agent to track a mobile device using a plurality of location breadcrumbs in an environment where network access may be unreliable, comprising, registering with a tracking server by a tracking client to receive a location of the mobile agent, receiving a location breadcrumb by the tracking server from the mobile agent, and reporting the location of the mobile agent by the tracking server to the tracking client.