rf beacon tracking

Dear all,

I need to make a presentation on what factors to consider in designing a tracking system embedded in the Cash-In-Transit products.

I have googled such systems and also on this board, most of the people suggest a GPS-GSM embedded system i.e. finding the location through a GPS module and transmitting the information through the GSM network.

- What factors are important while designing such a system? I can think of (a) Power supply (b) Choice of microcontroller (c) Network security, Any others?


How can such a system be implented using an RF beacon? I have seen references to it but cannot get my head around on how it might work.. Any thoughts.

Thanks

Yes, power supply (and power management in general) is very important in this kind of system, thinking that you never now how long you need to track that system (also could be a delay starting the initial search).
Security is given by the security of the GSM system which is relative good for this application.
Also antenna system is important to maintain a good link connection even for hidden spots of the GPS or GSM networks.

Is it true that GPS needs a direct line-of-sight link with the antenna and satellite ? If it is so, I was wondering how can a GPS based system work to track containers kept inside a vehicle ?


Many Thanks.

Any GPS system needs an antenna to see a minimum number of satellites.
Probably those containers use an external patch-antenna.