Tracking down Terrorists

Alongside consumer applications, the power of GPS technology to assist in security and terrorist prevention has remarkably developed. Its increased intelligence has now gained recognition in the homeland security sector when location technology was once only used to manage assets. A widespread deployment of this ever-growing technology was due to decreasing costs and improved efficiency.

How GPS started

A set of remarkable events can act as outstanding millstones in the history of GPS development. Two particular events were 1. The Gulf War, in which precision-guided missiles were first widely introduced to the general citizens and 2. The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Wireless E9-1-1 Act, which required the embracing of location technology into cellular handset devices to enable the geolocation of 9-1-1 calls from suspected victims. A quick glance at the future reveals that Europe's Galileo satellite is undergoing preparations to be launched into space very soon. The launching of improved signals in the GPS constellation will not be far off as well. In the present day, services based on GPS technology are becoming more available and more affordable to the general public.

This entire technological approach has resulted in a multitude of commercial GPS-based location devices and services, consumer navigation handheld devices, to from fleet management to asset tracking. It is predicted that the global fleet administration market alone to reach nearly $6 billion by two years form now.

Furthermore, the technology of GPS also is used to broadcast reliable time and frequency to time-sensitive assets, such as towers of cellular broadcast. For instance, CDMA cellular companies, such as Verizon or Sprint, are coordinated with GPS interfaces. Furthermore GPS is used by financial services to synchronize encrypted networks of communication. Possibly, this interface of GPS is as significant as its use in navigation and geolocation.

GPS Concerns

Generally speaking, two risks are often associated with total dependence on GPS. To start with, in major urban environments and indoor It may be unreliable or unavailable. Secondly, during an attack or terrorist incident it could easily be disrupted or even penetrated.

The vulnerability of a GPS system in indoor, urban canyons and areas of dense population is partly due to the high frequency, low power, and vertical orientation. However, unfortunately, these are areas that are thought to be most at risk attacks by potential terrorists.

For high-risk or high-value, or mobile assets, first responders or offenders under monitoring, real-time supervising capabilities are a recognized obligation. Any intruder wearing a GPS bracelet could easily, for instance, enter Washington, D.C.'s Union Station, head out the back to its covered parking area, and then drive out in a car. The criminal's monitoring device would never have line of sight to the sky while he is in the station as well as the vehicle. The last available location would still show him in front of Union Station and if the GPS device des show a signal it would most likely be dark, small and uneasy to recognize.

Adding on, the GPS system is also easily vulnerable to interference of systems and devices that are manmade. Devices that disturb GPS devices are relatively inexpensive, also their manuals area widely available or the World Wide Web. It was feared that GPS disturbance devices would be used to hamper the use of precision-guided munitions prior to the second Gulf War. In analyzing this situation one must realize that GPS jammers themselves can be targeted based on their emitted signal, but they contain the power to interrupt key or sensitive procedures. From an area of up to 120 miles a GPS jammer can allegedly block GPS reception.

These risks were noted eight years ago in the Volpe report organized for the Department of Transportation, and by a presidential decision directive four years ago, which specifically highlighted that rising dependence on GPS services left both military and commercial services vulnerable to the interruption attempts. An "asymmetric dependency," was the term that DARPA and others used to refer to the claims of this report, it meant that our reliance on GPS is much higher than that of the enemies of America. Consecutively, disruption of GPS' accessibility would, in reality, damage the United States more than it would damage its opponents.

This leaves us wondering, what then should we do and what options do we have?

A good alternative is TV-GPS. This solution utilizes unmodified commercial broadcast TV signals passively to locate the various positions. A GPS on earth, is how we one can think of this system. The same as the GPS is already on and accessible for positioning, so too are the signals of the television, though for the purpose of broadcasting, not location positions. Generally speaking, broadcast transmitters are nicely associated with urban population locations; where most assets of worth, human or material, are located.

TV waves are dispersed and stout to interruptions. UHF and VHF signals can both be used in this process. Not to mention that positioning devices no longer need line-of-sight to the satellites, meaning that devices can be positioned in trucks or below care to trace vehicles these uses can save time and reduce risk for officials of public safety. These security devices are currently being experienced in the field, and in setting up radio systems for urban warfare (overseas) and/or domestic homeland safety purposes. Offender monitoring systems that require an always-on positioning capability and asset tracking systems where a specific pallet is tracked are amongst the future applications.

It is clear that TV is best used in urban centers and is not entirely perfect in its coverage. A broader coverage is presented when TV gets combined with other signals, such as highly-sensitive GPS. A second alternative are self-deployed, TV-like beacons. These can be deployed domestically or in overseas environments where ambient TV signal may not be very abundant.

A current presidential administrator referred to GPS as a critical national infrastructure and ordered the search for terrestrial accompaniments to, or replace for GPS in the event that it should be undermined.

Recently, FEMA has been working with two broadcast stations located in Washington, D.C. to convey rich emergency information over the air to devices with television receiving devices. One of the major goals of FEMA has been to improve the emergency broadcast system.

At the same time as analog TV broadcasts are getting taken off the air due to the introduction of digital television, 23 MHz of range in the 700-MHz band will be designated for public safety interfaces, addressing the issues associated with the integration of various communications. Transmittance to time-sensitive assets is also possible via TV signals locked to robust clocks.

The rest of security technology

For the past few years the world has witnessed rapid growth in new forms of location technology used in a large number of deployments. RFID and other defined-area technologies, improve asset exploitation competence. Furthermore, WiFi-based systems offer another alternative, however with less stout signals that may be more helpful for consumer applications than communal security. In addition, Cellular systems are being used to help GSM providers in the United States, such as Cingular or T-Mobile, to reach their FCC E9-1-1 requirements. Adding on, cellular systems also are getting utilized for stolen car recovery utilities, such as those utilized in the Canadian grounds.

LORAN is another robust signal of opportunity even though it is definitely out of date. However LORAN is not exactly keen when it comes to positioning accuracy, furthermore its indoor accuracy is also lagging behind. On the other hand, it has global footprint, due to its highly robust 29 transmitters and it can be used as a dependable time source for fixed interfaces. For applications that are time-sensitive this is definitely an interesting emergency backup.

It is clearly obvious that the location technology sector is continuously shifting. Furthermore, in the public safety sector, an indoor/outdoor positioning system that is always active and precise is an achievement that's constantly raising the bar higher. Day after day we are getting closer to achieving that objective.

Seeing the Reality of RFID Technology

The sad reality is that many companies that have embarked on the investment in RFID are still straddled with inadequate IT infrastructure, face major adoption challenges and haven't focused on achieving meaningful benefits, not to mention that the costs of RFID technology are also declining dramatically. One may wonder about how can corporations mitigate the concealed expenses of RFID and make certain that RFID reserves are well exhausted? A global management consulting firm named DiamondCluster suggests that in spite of whether a corporation is just starting internal discussions about RFID or are already knee deep in an implementation, every company should implement five actions.

The first action is to enforce and solidify its strategy. Amongst the first questions to ask is will rapid RFID adoption define the losers and gainers in your business? Moreover, is it part of the expense of doing commerce with your patrons or partners? In addition, are you searching for improved processes, greater transaction accuracy, or huge productivity gains? As a general rule, a "big-bang" strategy is not as effective as a small-scale implementations followed by rigorous cost/benefit analysis. Obviously, rationalizing the investment cycle is a vital necessity.

Secondly, a company must effectively re-evaluate the readiness of its IT communications systems. More than 50 percent of an RFID investment can be accounted for connectivity and infrastructure costs. Any potential savings RFID might ultimately provide can be undercut by the financial burden of building out the existing infrastructure. Furthermore, the CIO, along with the executive sponsorship of the CEO, should take the responsibility for explaining how and why IT infrastructure improvements will support the company's RFID strategy by tying those investments to precise commerce procedures.

Thirdly a company must get the business advantages set in place. A major advantage of RFID today is to diminish errors that consistently occur at any point in the supply chain, where human involvement is necessary. The business case will improve in most cases as more opportunities to improve error-prone processes are recognized as applicant for RFID submissions. For instance, advantages to customer packaged goods companies might include, product quality control, including expiration date and recall lot management, enhanced customer insights for marketing purposes and greater supply chain integrity.

Moreover, sponsorship of Marshall executive must also take place. Senior-level support inside your organization and among stakeholders across your value chain will be needed in order to be successful. Even huge companies whose influence with suppliers is renowned, such as  Wal-Mart, has been challenged in influencing its entire supplier base to place RFID tags on cases and pallets due to the questions surrounding the come back on asset conjectures.

• Aim to Enhance Operations. Corporations that are being obligated by influential partners to adopt RFID should view it as a chance to make long overdue procedure developments than can increase competitiveness between the companies. Consecutively, RFID leaders can put forth influence on their value chain partners to redesign bulky processes that are costing both parties money and time.