| 摘要 |
A system and method for wide area item tracking. An item identifier for a tracked item is detected in a handling zone within a cellular network. A mobile station associated with the handling zone transmits a signal containing the item identifier and a zone identifier over an air interface of the cellular network. Upon receipt of the signal, data correlating the item identifier and the handling zone is stored in a database. Subsequently, a request for the current location of the tracked item is received, and the stored correlation data is retrieved to determine the current handling zone for the tracked item. The cell location of the handling zone is then determined. In one implementation, the mobile station transmits a registration signal, permitting the cellular network to determine in which cell the handling zone is currently located, and data associating the handling zone with the current cell is stored. Then, in response to the location request, the association data is retrieved to determine the current cell. In another implementation, the mobile station is paged and the page return signal is used to identify the current cell, which can be converted into geographical location data using a look-up table. |
