Improving Location Services with Prediction

We present the Predictive Legend Exchange and Augmentation Protocol (P-LEAP), a predictive location service. PLEAP improves upon the LEAP location service, which has been shown to reduce location error in mobile networks, by incorporating a method of predicting the topology of the network. P-LEAP is designed to create and transmit a data structure that traverses an ad hoc network. The data structure updates all nodes in the network with previous location information stored on the nodes; this information is then used to predict the current location of the nodes in the network. With our new predictive protocol, at a fixed number of packets sent, the location error can be reduced by as much as 68 percent, with an average of 52 percent, compared to previous protocols. Also, with our new predictive protocol, at a fixed location error, the number of packets sent can be reduced by as much as 73 percent, with an average of 45 percent, compared to previous protocols.