Mobile user locating mechanism based on network latency

A mechanism for the positioning of mobile user location is presented in this paper. Based on the three-point problem from land surveying, this positioning mechanism makes use of network delay to estimate user locations by trigonometry and analytical geometry. Location-sensitive wireless services and applications can be provided without the need of obtaining access to the physical layer information such as signal strength, time of arrival (TOA), angle of arrival (AOA) or adding GPS (Global Positioning System) hardware. It also provides better protection for user privacy by a user initiation mechanism. The novel concept of virtual location based on network latency is introduced to investigate the relative topologies among mobile users and position known servers