RE: [aprssig] Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) for APRS

[David Huff]

Have you looked at netstumbler? www.netstumbler.com  It has support for
reading GPS positions (it reads NMEA GPS data)  There are also similar
wifi mapping applications out there.
I have heard of companies trying to do this, one article I read said
they always seem to run into 2 problems.  
1. Some Wifi systems change their SSID,(usually advanced configs, or an
easy way to allow changing security profiles) And mapping Wifi is a
changing thing, people are continually turning off changing or buying
new wifi equipment.
2. The Wifi connection cloud can be huge in some cases, the largest wifi
node can easily span a city block or more.


-----Original Message-----
From: aprssig-bounces at lists.tapr.org
[mailto:aprssig-bounces at lists.tapr.org] On Behalf Of John Habbinga
Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2006 12:24 AM
To: TAPR APRS Mailing List
Subject: [aprssig] Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) for APRS


I was recently contracted to map out the location of every Wi-Fi
access point, in the the city where I live, for a company called
Skyhook Wireless.  They are using this data to provide a positioning
system that can be used in lieu of satellite based GPS.  I'm curious
if anyone has considered using their system to provide location data
for APRS.  Perhaps the developers of Xastir or those creating
UI-View32 plug-ins, might be able to use the developer API that
Skyhook Wireless provides.