Active GSM Cell-ID Tracking: "Where Did You Disappear?"

Location-based services are mobile network applications of growing importance and variability. The space of location technologies and applications has not yet been fully explored, perhaps omitting some important practical uses. In this work the authors present the prototype SS7Tracker platform, an active, non-intrusive, GSM Cell-ID-based solution to network-based location tracking, and two novel applications of this technique: network diagnostics based on in roamer tracking and human activity research. The authors demonstrate the usability and performance limits of the platform on practical tests carried out in a live GSM network.