This is a (probably pointless) discussion on the 100 meter uncertainty
number that is found in -framework.  It is a realistic number today, and a
much smaller number is not, in my opinion, realistic.

For emergency calls, you care about getting an accurate routing in around a
minute (fastest response time practical), and 2 minutes is probably okay.

The U.S. Regulation is based on average results for emergency calls within a
county (changed from average within a PSAP service boundary).  The
requirement is that EVERY county get 100 meter uncertainty, 95% confidence.
As a practical matter, they drive counties to determine the results, rather
than attempt to actually locate callers.  They use real cell phones.  I'm a
bit fuzzy on when they get the accurate location, but the cell system
determines this (a poll from the PSAP doesn't get a better result until the
network is ready to give good results).  I do think it's a minute or two.

Brian




On 3/10/10 9:28 AM, "Henning Schulzrinne" <[email protected]> wrote:

> 
> On Mar 10, 2010, at 8:36 AM, Brian Rosen wrote:
> 
>> I suppose that it's conceivable that every carrier, the FCC, NENA and APCO
>> are all stupid.
> 
> The 100 m/95% is a requirement, not an attempt to describe current GPS
> performance. As far as I know, the requirement was stated when GPS SA
> (selective availability) was still enabled.
> 
> 
>> 
>> On the other hand, the carriers spend millions of dollars testing every
>> year.  So, perhaps they aren't quite so stupid.
> 
> I'm afraid I'm missing how this relates to my note. Did I accuse anybody of
> being stupid?
> 
>> 
>> I don't have access to the full paper to understand what a "20 minute field
>> test" is, but the largest problem for 100 meter 95% confidence is the fact
>> that the GPS is not always enabled (for battery drain reasons) and unless
>> it's on and seeing satellites for many minutes, you don't get really good
>> accuracy.  Also, field tests are usually conducted in open sky situations,
>> and not urban canyons, or even tree leaf cover situations, which degrade
>> performance considerably.
> 
> 
> As an aside, this illustrates that the 95% number is pretty meaningless. Does
> it mean 95% of all calls (lots more emergency calls are made from indoors and
> the urban canyons of Manhattan than from open fields) or 95% of all sample
> points? Is it measured immediately after turning on the device or after
> waiting N minutes?
> 
> Without such detail, making precise statements is just pretend-precision.
> 
> Henning


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