Location Management Overview

Purpose

The Location Management collection contains two location management components: the A-GPS Location Manager and the Network Location Manager that handle location requests sent from the Location Server and the Network Request Handler.

The collection contains the Network Gateway component that provides the interface between the LBS subsystem and a telecommunications network.

The collection also contains an Location Admin component that contains common libraries that are used by many components of the LBS subsystem.

Architecture

Figure 1 shows this collection within the context of the LBS system model.

Figure 1. Figure 1. Location Management collection in the LBS system model.

Description

The three main functions provided by this collection are as follows:

• Location management.

  The A-GPS Location Manager and the Network Location Manager provide location management functions.

• Network connectivity.

  The Network Gateway provides network connectivity to the LBS subsystem.

• Shared data types and library functions that are used throughout the LBS subsystem.

  The Location Admin component contains these data types and libraries.

Components

The Location Management collection contains the following components:

• A-GPS Location Manager

  The A-GPS Location Manager handles location requests from the Location Sever and the Network Request Handler that require the use of GPS. It loads an ECom plug-in that implements the A-GPS Location Data Source API, such as the A-GPS Integration Module of the Data Source Modules collection.

• Network Location Manager

  The Network Location Manager handles location requests from the Location Server that require the use of network based positioning methods, such as Cell ID and Enhanced Cell ID.

• Network Gateway

  The Network Gateway is the interface between the LBS subsystem and a network. It sends and receives location based services privacy and location requests.

  The Network Gateway must load at least one Protocol Module. The Network Gateway loads a Protocol Module from the Network Adaptation collection (or a Protocol Module developed by a device creator) to support a specific network protocol.

• Location Admin

  The Location Admin component contains several important libraries that are used by different components of the LBS subsystem and by client applications.

Using the Location Management collection

The A-GPS Location Manager and Network Location Manager are components used internally by the LBS subsystem. Application programmers and device creators have no direct interaction with these components.

A device creator must install and configure a Protocol Module to allow the Network Gateway to process privacy requests and (optionally) location requests. Symbian provides two Protocol Modules that device creators can use in their products. See Network Adaptation for more information about these Protocol Modules. Alternatively, a device creator can implement their own Protocol Module by implementing the Network Protocol Module API.

The Location Admin component contains a set of loosely related interfaces and data types that are used by many components of the LBS subsystem. See Location Admin for more information about the APIs provided by this component.