E-CID – Enhanced Cell ID

E-CID (Enhanced Cell ID) incorporates Timing Advance (TA) and Network Management Records (NMR) from the wireless network to improve the accuracy of Cell ID.

Enhanced Cell ID (E-CID) "At-A-Glance"

• Enhanced Cell ID is Cell Global Identity (CGI) with Timing Advance (TA) and Network Management Record (NMR)
• Enhanced Cell ID bases location around the serving cell tower and uses Timing Advance and Network Management Records to fine-tune the measurement
• E-CID yield is 100%
• Accuracy varies on cell size, but could be 300 meters to several kilometers
• With Enhanced Cell ID, no speed or direction of travel is available

How Enhanced Cell ID (E-CID) is different from Cell ID

Cell Identification (CID) or Cell Global Identity (CGI) is the process of using the network's knowledge of the phone within the controlling cell site and communicating the sector information. Using the geographical center of this area provides a rough estimate of the location of the caller, regardless of the type of phone. Depending on the distribution of base stations, however, the precision of the location using this method could be as large as several kilometers.

Enhanced Cell ID (E-CID) is an accuracy improvement over Cell ID that is achieved by using additional Timing Advance (TA) and Network Management Records (NMR), or information derived from the wireless network.

There is one step, in terms of accuracy, between Cell ID (CGI) and Enhanced Cell ID (CGI+TA+NMR), and that is simply Cell Global Identity + Timing Advance (CGI+TA). This method adds the measured time between the start of a radio frame and a data burst to CGI to improve the location determination. The accuracy is a little bit better than CGI operating on its own.