Topic summary

Location awareness

Location awareness

Location awareness refers to devices that can determine their location. Navigational instruments provide location coordinates for vessels and vehicles. Surveying equipment identifies location with respect to a well-known location wireless communications device. The term applies to navigating, real-time locating, and positioning support with global, regional or local scope. The term has been applied to traffic, logistics, business administration, and leisure applications. Location awareness is supported by navigation systems, positioning systems, and/or locating services. Location awareness without the active participation of the device is known as non-cooperative locating or detection. History of terminology The term originated for configurations settings of network systems, and addressed network entities. Network location awareness (NLA) services collect network configuration and location information, and notify applications when this information changes. With the advent of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) and radio-equipped mobile devices, the term was redefined to include consumer-focused applications. While location awareness began as a matter of static user location,