|
Newsletters
|
|
|
|
|
| Wireless Developer Network Mailing List |
| |
| Mailing List Archives |
| Subject: | Re: MobileLBSList: Article slamming wireless web |
| Date: |
10/30/2000 10:55:15 AM |
| From: |
creediii@mindspring.com |
|
All -
Rob brought up the subject of standards in the wireless world - and since
this is a forum on mobile location services, I thought a recent article by
Lou Hecht of the OGC germane. Participants in this forum need to be aware of
the current OGC activities as related to standards and interoperability
specifications for Location Services. The OGC Membership has determined that
Open Location Services will be a major interoperability thrust for 2001. And
they are not doing this in isolation in regard to other standards bodies.
Stay tuned for standard/specification developments on the OGC channel.
Carl Reed
Excerpts OF LH's article in Business Geographics,
A recent e-mail discussion "thread" on Location-Based-Services@egroups.com
began with a question from Michael Palmeter of Ericsson, who wrote that he
was looking for information regarding "the" standard API for passing
location data to wireless applications, if one existed.
The question precipitated a flurry of messages dealing with the nature,
scope and content of standards for location services. A number of messages
mentioned that the answer could be found in industrial consortia such as the
Open GIS Consortium (OGC), Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), W3C, and
WAP Forum, while others suggested that the answer could lie within the de
jure standards organizations such as ISO, the U.S. FGDC, and CEN.
. . . .
A Dynamic Environment
LBSs will exist in a dynamic, fast-changing environment, similar to what we
witnessed during the past five years with business models that emerged as
companies innovated to meet market-driven location-information needs across
the new strands of the Web.
. . . .
Coordination and Cooperation
OGC members are defining, implementing, and inserting interfaces and
protocols for interoperable geospatial services into the marketplace. OGC
has also established channels of coordination with ISO/TC 211, the U.S.
FGDC, W3C, WAP Forum, and IETF. OGC provided IETF with a position paper that
describes opportunities for cooperation between OGC and the IETF to develop
spatial location protocols. The proposed IETF architecture appears to be
well suited to the special needs surrounding spatial information sharing,
with one serious exception as currently defined, the payload will handle
only coordinate data of single points, but will not support more general
location types often needed for wide use of spatial information by
consumers. Other location types that should be supported include more
general geometries, place names, addresses, pathways, and verbal navigation
instructions.
Because the LBS market is taking form rapidly, and coordination and
cooperation in these technical areas is needed, OGC is encouraging any
interested participants in organizations active in the wireless marketplace
to consider a joint testbed process. The goal is to gain implementation and
operational experience that would feature at least two independent and
interoperating implementations that exercise all of the options and features
of IETF, W3C, WAP Forum services and technologies along with the fundamental
elements of OGC's location services.
The LBS opportunity for companies already engaged in business geographics is
enormous. Enabling a viable location services market requires an
understanding of the existing spatial and wireless Internet standards. It
also means working together toward consensus as we extend location to the
wireless world.
Louis Hecht Jr. is vice president of business, OGC
> Who else will develop standards?
> - I wouldn't leave it purely to the current operators. Their agenda lies
in
> expanding and protecting their markets. I would not recommend another
Microsoft
> to arise, especially for an operator who provides both communications and
> financial services. This to me, is more dangerous than some monopolist
selling
> operating systems and OA software
> - IETF? Sure, they have great standards for mobile IP. But have you seen
> anything from them yet on location based services? Push Services? Anything
> remotely practical for smartcards on a portable device? Integration with
> Intelligent Networks? Their architecture board has little/no agenda or
even
> reflection on the great impact of mobile technology, though there are some
very
> interesting movements in the areas of mobileIP and Manet with great
> participation from many of the internet and wireless technology providers
> (thumbs up)
> - ITU, 3GPP / 3GPP2 and affiliates? Now these fellows are heavy contenders
as
> standards bodies because they too are custodians of wireless. Internet
also,
> though to a lesser degree. However, they have varied interests with wide
ranging
> issues and all the standards haven't been 100% finalised yet for carrier
> infrastructure. Value added platforms is not closely addressed by ITU. WAP
on
> the other hand is carrier / b |
|
|
