Location based services (LBS)

Vital capabilities for enabling services using the geographical location of a device.

The Location Based Services solution (LBS) consists of the Gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC), the Location Retrieval Function (LRF) and the Routing Determination Function (RDF). The productized software solution enables flexible integration for Location Clients (LCS) such as emergency, law enforcement, regulatory/legislative and enterprise clients. It provides operators with a unified access point to retrieve, store and maintain location information, based on Cell ID, GPS location and Civic location information provided by the MSC, SGSN, MME or HSS/HLR.

Single software solution for GMLC, LRF and RDF

The Location Based Services solution consists of the Gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC), the Location Retrieval Function (LRF) and the Routing Determination Function (RDF). It provides vital capabilities to mobile networks for enabling services that use the geographical location of a device. This includes emergency services, directions, vehicle tracking, navigation, advertising and much more.

The Gateway Mobile Location Centre (GMLC) is a control plane system that interfaces with emergency and commercial LCS clients and the operator’s network to provide the location of a mobile device, required to support Location Based Services (LBS). The Location Retrieval Function (LRF) retrieves location information for users that have initiated an emergency session. The Routing Determination Function (RDF) provides the allocated outgoing address to the E-CSCF for routing the emergency request towards a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP).

The LBS solution enables flexible integration for LoCation Clients (LCS) such as emergency, law enforcement, regulatory/legislative and enterprise clients. It also provides operators with a unified access point to retrieve, store and maintain location information, based on Cell ID, GPS location and Civic location information provided by the MSC, SGSN, MME or HSS/HLR.

LBS solution supports all relevant interfaces for mobile network and client integration. For 2G/3G the MAP based 3GPP Lg and Lh interfaces are supported. For 4G the 3GPP Diameter SLg and SLh interfaces are supported. For communication towards the LoCation Clients, the Le interface with OMA Mobile Location Protocol (MLP) is supported. The OMA MLP protocol is an HTTP based protocol, making it easy to integrate with external IT based service clients. The Mi interface uses the SIP protocol to ‘steer’ the emergency call to the allocated PSAP.

Hardware-agnostic solution, supporting NFV and SDN

The LBS solution runs on any off-the-shelf hardware or in a virtualized environment. It is built from the ground up as a 100% pure software solution, supporting virtualization and cloud deployment (VMWare, KVM, Xen, OpenStack, Amazon etc.). The LBS solution does not rely on specialist hardware or proprietary operating systems.

Next Generation, software designed LBS solution

Nomios Group offers a unique solution for enabling Location Based Services in the mobile network. It provides a carrier grade, flexible device location storage and retrieval function in a single software design:

  • Productized solution for GLMC and LRF/RDF on a single platform
  • Multi-protocol support, including Diameter, SS7, HTTP, SIP
  • Supporting all relevant interfaces for mobile network and client integration
  • Completely GUI based configuration, provisioning and management – no need for scripting or development
  • No dependency on expensive database technologies
  • Central logging point (EDR-registration)
  • Carrier grade, highly scalable, high available, geo-redundant solution
  • 100% software based, runs on standard off-the-shelf hardware or virtualized / hosted
  • 5G Ready: extendable to the 5G Gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC TS 29.518)
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