How All Satellite GPS Trackers Work

All satellite-based GPS trackers are different from their cellular-based cousins in many ways. We will explain how all satellite based GPS trackers work.

Before we begin, you should understand a few basic concepts.

The Global Positioning System, commonly know as GPS, is an active group of 27 medium earth orbiting satellites, that circle the earth twice a day, they are 12,550 miles above us. To give you a perspective of how high up these GPS satellites are, a commercial jet flys at a cruising altitude of 6.6 miles above the ground. These GPS satellites provide end users with positioning, navigation, and timing services.

The GPS system is run, owned and maintained by the United States Government. The entire GPS constellation consists of a mixture of old and new satellites. The satellites are arrayed into what the Air Force calls blocks. Each block contains a group of satellites categorized by satellite age, from older legacy units to the newest most modern units.

The GPS satellites circling the earth are always sending out radio signals from high orbit that are captured, decoded and read by devices with GPS receivers. Today these GPS receivers can be found all over the place like in smartphones, cars, cameras, etc.

An All Satellite GPS tracking device has a GPS receiver that captures position information. Once it acquires location information, an All Satellite device transmits the information back up to a private satellite constellation. Examples of companies who maintain such private satellite networks would include Globalstar, Iridium, Orbcomm, and Inmarsat.

Globalstar, for instance, maintains a constellation of low earth orbiting satellites, that cover nearly 90% of the globe. Devices equipped with Globalstar satellite modems, also know as Remote Telemetry Units (RTU) transmit a single packet message 3-times (the original transmission plus 2-repeats) to Globalstar satellites circling overhead.

In turn, the Globalstar satellite relays this data to what is known as gateways or ground stations on Earth. These ground stations receive transmissions from orbiting satellites, processes calls, and switches them to the appropriate ground network, i.e. internet, phone company, etc.

All satellite GPS tracking devices work in much larger areas than GPS trackers who transmit position information via cellular modem fail. This is directly related to the vast reach and coverage a satellite has over ground-based cellular communication towers.

About The Author: George Karonis, CEO of LiveViewGPS is an expert on GPS trackers, tracking systems and devices.