Wireless Location Signatures Technology

Polaris pioneered its patented and industry-leading Wireless Location Signatures (WLS) technology. PWLS™ is a sophisticated pattern-matching approach for determining the location of a mobile phone. It relies on neighbor cell signal strengths and other standard network measurements automatically reported as part of normal network operation. These reports are compared against an established geo-referenced database that models the radio frequency (RF) environment. The system identifies the best pattern match to determine the location of a handset.

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Cracking the Code

Previous signal strength approaches by other vendors did not meet accuracy requirements for E911 or location-based services. Determined to deliver a viable alternative, Polaris engineers spent four years developing and validating a suite of proprietary algorithms. These algorithms take advantage of state-of-the-art propagation models and advanced statistical methods to enable a dramatically higher degree of accuracy in determining handset location than ever before.

Technology Overview

The Polaris WLS™ technology is based on the principle that any location has a unique radio frequency (RF) signature. Like a fingerprint's pattern of lines and swirls, a location can be identified by a unique set of values including measurements of neighbor cell signal strengths, time delay, and other network parameters.

Polaris capitalizes on this substantial body of existing network measurement information to determine handset location.

To deploy its product, Polaris relies on this network information, as well as other field measurements, to model the radio environment and create a database of predicted values (the location signature). Using its sophisticated, proprietary algorithms for pattern matching, Polaris optimally processes this data for E911 or location-based services requests to accurately determine the location of any digital wireless handset.