How location is determined
Note: The Location Acquisition API abstracts the connections to the underlying technology that provides the location information, which means that it is possible to find the location of a device without knowing how that information is obtained.
The accuracy of a location fix, the cost of obtaining it and the ability to obtain it indoors all depend on the positioning technology used to obtain the fix.
The location of a mobile device is determined by one of the following methods:
GPS
GPS functions may be accessed through either a Bluetooth-enabled GPS receiver or a GPS chip in the mobile device, depending on the hardware solution. For more information on GPS, see the general public education website on GPS.
Note: GPS technology does not support the acquisition of a location more than once a second.
Network based positioning
Network based positioning relies upon the underlying network infrastructure of the mobile service provider. Location accuracy depends on this infrastructure.
Note: From the perspective of Location Acquisition API, position information is always in WGS84 format, regardless of the positioning technology. Network based positioning implementation analyses network information, but still returns coordinates, not the network infrastructure information.
Note: Assisted GPS reduces the time to acquire the first location fix, but does not solve the GPS problem of being sometimes unable to obtain a location when inside a building or in a heavily built up area, the problem being inability to receive the satellite signal.
Figure: Positioning methods
The above figure illustrates how the location information can be provided to the device. Access to these location methods is provided through the positioning modules. For more information, see module information in the API reference.
For more information about using the modules, see Getting the module information in the API reference.