Vehicle Tracking System

VEHICLE TRACKING SYSTEM is the technology used to determine the location of a vehicle using different methods like GPS and other radio navigation systems operating through satellites and ground based stations. By following triangulation or trilateration methods the tracking system enables to calculate easy and accurate location of the vehicle. Vehicle information like location details, speed, distance traveled etc. can be viewed on a digital mapping with the help of a software via Internet. Even data can be stored and downloaded to a computer from the GPS unit at a base station and that can later be used for analysis. This system is an important tool for tracking each vehicle at a given period of time and now it is becoming increasingly popular for people having expensive cars and hence as a theft prevention and retrieval device.

System: The system consists of modern hardware and software components enabling one to track their vehicle online or offline. Any vehicle tracking system consists of mainly three parts mobile vehicle unit, fixed based station and, database and software system.

• Vehicle Unit: It is the hardware component attached to the vehicle having either a GPS/GSM modem. The unit is configured around a primary modem that functions with the tracking software by receiving signals from GPS satellites or radio station points with the help of antenna. The controller modem converts the data and sends the vehicle location data to the server.

• Fixed Based Station: Consists of a wireless network to receive and forward the data to the data center. Base stations are equipped with tracking software and geographic map useful for determining the vehicle location. Maps of every city and landmarks are available in the based station that has an in-built Web Server.
• Database and Software: The position information or the coordinates of each visiting points are stored in a database, which later can be viewed in a display screen using digital maps. However, the users have to connect themselves to the web server with the respective vehicle ID stored in the database and only then s/he can view the location of vehicle traveled.

Summation: No doubt, Vehicle tracking system whether it is GPS based or any other wireless medium has brought one of the most important technological advances in today’s communication field. Now one doesn’t have to leave a place to know where a particular vehicle is at a given period of time. The automatic vehicle locating system only with the help of a tinny electronic device and tracking software can detect the real-time location of a vehicle by using the conventional cell phone network and Internet.

Riktesh Srivastava
PhD Internet Technologies
MS(Electronics and Communicatios)