GPS Tracking: How it works

GPS, or Global Positioning System, is a navigation system based on satellites that can determine the latitude and longitude of a GPS receiver device anywhere on the Earth.

There are 27 satellites in the orbit of earth that completes the GPS system out of which, 24 satellites fully operational and 3 are kept as a back up as if any of the operational satellites fails. There are at least three satellites that are visible from a single point that are responsible to regulate the position of the GPS tracking device. With the help of these satellites you can know the speed of an object, the distance traveled and how long it has been stationary.

A GPS tracking system requires two main things to work, first the GPS access and a GPS receiver. The GPS receivers receives the radio signals that are transmitted by the GPS satellites and once the the satellite signals are received by the receivers all the tracking information can be calculated.

To calculate the exact location of the vehicle or anything, the GPS receivers requires the transmission of signals from at least three or more satellites. The GPS receiver are also capable of measuring the delay in the interval between transmissions and reception of GPS signal from each satellite.

The GPS tracking system uses the GPS technology to find the location of anything in which the continuous recording of the target object takes place with the help of the GPS receiver unit that is then transmitted to a central location, from where all the information can be accessed with the help of internet.

GPS trackers commonly use satellite modem technology, GPRS enabled cellular devices and radio waves for transferring the data to the central location where all the data is recorded. Most of the GPS tracking devices can be monitored real time containing background maps to know the current location of the target object. Depending upon the techniques of data logging and retrieval, the GPS tracking units are divided into three categories:

Data Loggers

The function of GPS data logger is to log the exact position of the object at regular interval of time and store that information in a flash-based memory. This data can be retrieved or transferred to other stores with the help of a USB connection.

Data Pushers

GPS data pushers are important because of security reasons. The major function of data pushers is to send the data from the GPS device to the central database system at regular interval of time and helps in updating data to find the information of specific location, speed, direction and distance.

This type of device is most suitable for fleet management as the vehicles can be traced most effectively with exact time and location and thus helps in supervision and prevent theft.

Data Pullers

With the help of the data pullers your are able to pull the data from the receiver as per your need. This device need to be kept on all the time and is mostly used to trace the stolen things.

Thus, a GPS tracking device is able to provide you real time location of an object and hence is quite effective to track you vehicle or any asset to avoid any problem in communication.
