Location-based services in mobile communication infrastructures

Location- and context-based services form a new class of services, which supplement existing services in the mobile communication infrastructure. The paper describes shortly all architecture of systems supporting the new class of services; this architecture extends beyond those systems which have initially been introduced by support of centralized data bases (such as web servers) and by federation components providing search and mapping functions which are necessary for the full exploitation of the capabilities of such services. The concept is based on the existence of heterogeneous mobile and radio access networks. The question arises. among others, to what extent such services add to the network load and its performance, in particular the question of scalability. In this paper, an approach is outlined as a basis for future capacity planning acid for the support of strategic decision making with respect to infrastructure investments.