Mobile platform
MapBroker Mobile Platform
middleware mapserver for wireless carriers to develop Location Based services
MapBroker Mobile is middleware service platform specifically targeted to mobile telephony operators wishing to develop and market Location Based Services to business and consumer markets.
The mobile mapserver provides a full-featured set of modules for: positioning, tracking, distance calculation, geocoding, routing and proximity searches.
Once a route or a position is asked to the wireless carrier via toll-free number, call center, SMS or other access methods, the query is forwarded to UbiEst Mobile Platform in ordere to perform:
- Real Time conversion of the user’s position coordinates into useful geographic information
- Calculation of distance between user’s position and a given destination (the user’s position can be retrived from GPS or Cell ID positioning or indicated by the user)
- Points of Interest proximity search in a given radius from a point or along a route
UbiEst MapBroker Mobile platform provides geographic data in a consistent format for mobile distribution platforms (SMS, Voice or WAP) so that carriers don’t have to worry about convertion and can focus on final consumer application.
Mobile mapserver can integrate dynamic content or external data to enable the development of value added mobile services like services locator, context-aware information, traffic and meteo contents.
Architecture
MapBroker Mobile architecture is made of a client component (GeoConnector), installed into the Carrier systems, and server components (MapServer) constituting the engine of cartographic data extraction calculation and transfer.
Thanks to MapBroker Mobile, the carrier can supply geographical information and geocodings and exploit all service potentials while the service configuration remains completely autonomous. Within this context, GeoConnector is a tool conceived to set localization services, route planning and proximity search. The Carrier will supply these services to users through its communication and interface systems: SMS, Voice, WAP and laying process through cellular system.
Localization
GeoConnector enables Carrier systems to request over the Internet network to the MapServer to retrieve location information of the cellular phone and translate it into geographic coordinates: GeoConnector is independent from Mobile Operator positioning technology.
The service may also be used to locate a lost cellular phone: through a Web query, the user can communicate his/her number and secret code of the service to the Carrier Web Server. The server then supplies the map and the complete address of the cellular phone location.
Routing
The user can request a route planning from a starting point (which can be the actual geographical location) to one or more specified destinations. Thanks to a functional interface, the transmitted data are collected and forwarded to the MapServer, where the route is calculated. The result is sent to the Carrier system, which memorizes it. The route selection can also be made on the Web through UbiEst MapBroker systems. In that case, the result of the routing is connected by the Internet user to the cellular phone number, together with the travel time to cover the identified route. At that point, a Path Navigation Assistant can intervene, analyzing the route planned and monitoring the user, in order to check the accurate deployment and travel through the given coordinates. Through the route, the Assistant can highlight incidental errors, generate recalculations for alternate routes or provide information about proximities, if requested. If the user reaches the final destination or decides to travel without assistance, the Carrier will close the session and delete the route from the memory, together with the relevant process that managed the orders.
POI.
The P.O.I.s (Points of Interest) dataset represents a business opportunity for mobile carriers and aims at increasing customer loyalty and ARPU. UbiEst provides geocoding services for private and public P.O.I. which may be used in the network from different interfaces.
The P.O.I.s are selected by categories, geographic area or through free-text researches, thanks to query systems which allow the use of filters.
