Location Discovery in Enterprise-based Wireless Networks: Implementation and Applications

We have designed and implemented a Web service for location discovery (LODS) and a location-based printing service that uses LODS on a network with wireless LAN connectivity based on IEEE 802.11 that is typical to campuses and enterprises. The need for location management and location-based services is linked to the mobility of the users. While location discovery is already implemented in cellular telecommunication networks since the system needs to know where are the users to connect them to incoming calls, the need for such a service was not so crucial in data network where in general the mobile user is the client and initiates the connections. We propose several solutions to implement our location discovery service and compare these solutions in terms of several criteria. LODS allows mobile users to find their approximate location within the campus or the enterprise and allows location-based applications to find out the location of a user to suggest the nearest points of interest, e.g., printers, restrooms, and vending machines. We will present the case of our location-based remote printing service that was deployed in Purdue wireless network.