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GSM Cell ID

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A GSM Cell ID (CID) is a generally unique number used to identify each Base transceiver station (BTS) or sector of a BTS within a Location area code (LAC) if not within a GSM network.

In some cases the last digit of CID represents cells' Sector ID

  • value 0 is used for omnidirectional antenna.
  • values 1,2,3 are used to identify sectors of trisector or bisector antennas.

In UMTS, there's a distinction between Cell ID (CID) and UTRAN Cell ID (also called LCID). The UTRAN Cell ID (LCID) is a concatenation of the RNC-ID (2 bytes, ID of the Radio Network Controller) and Cell ID (4 bytes, unique ID of the Cell). CID is just the Cell ID. The concatenation of both will still be unique but can be confusing in some cellid databases as some store the CID and other store LCID. It makes sense to record them separately as the RNC ID is the same for many cells, the unique element is the CID. [1] [2]

A valid CID ranges from 0 to 65535 on GSM and CDMA networks and from 0 to 268435455 on UMTS and LTE networks. [3]

Public Cell ID databases

A number of public Cell ID databases are available:

Name Unique Cells Countries (MCC) Operators (MNC) Measurements Free database download API Comment
Unwired Labs' LocationAPI 45 324 199+[4] 226 1613 no yes Supports GSM, CDMA, UMTS/WCDMA and LTE technologies via its API. In December 2013, Unwired Labs took over LocationAPI.org and added support for LTE. Last updated on 2 January 2014
LocationAPI.org CELL Tower Database Coverage map as on 1 Jan 2014
Location-API (Combain) 43 447 089+ 226 1560 5 613 933 053 no yes Supports both cell ID and wifi positioning via API. This independent database includes 404M+ wifis as well.
OpenCellID 2 611 805[5] 204 1816 585 816 474 yes yes
opencellid.org heat map
http://wigle.net/ 2 005 013 [6] no
Mozilla Location Service 939 780 [7] 114 140 470 000 no yes Access only through API, no reverse (list of cells from coordinates). Also Wifi database.
OpenSignal 824 297[8] 825 5 186 324 530 no
http://openbmap.org/ 695 294[9] 194 633 yes yes
http://www.netmeterproject.com/ 184 925 77 174 10 471 339 limited; private use only only a small portion of the database can be downloaded and for private use only:
the measurements where the crowd users accepted the
"Creative Commons Namensnennung-Nicht-kommerziell-Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 3.0 Deutschland" license
http://celldb.org/ 138 582 221 640 2 649 453 password protected
http://cellspotting.com/ 118 266 648 last database extract 23.9.2008
http://www.mobisy.com 60 000[10] no focus: Pakistan
http://www.gyokovsolutions.com/G-NetWorld/G-NetWorld.php 45 342 2,851,574 thru opencellid.org database download Since January 14, 2014 the data of this project is continuously replicated into the opencellid.org database.
Initially 45,342 unique cell-ids and 2,851,574 measurements were migrated to the opencellid.org database.
http://cellmapper.net/ [11] 178 188 no
http://www.opencelldb.net/ 32 642[12] 17 no
http://geomena.org/ 31 311 [13]
http://skyhookwireless.com/
http://www.openmobilenetwork.org/
Navizon

See also

References

  1. ^ https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7240038/utran-cell-identity-returned-by-getcid
  2. ^ http://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_ts/125400_125499/125401/04.02.00_60/ts_125401v040200p.pdf#page=15
  3. ^ https://mozilla-ichnaea.readthedocs.org/en/latest/cell.html
  4. ^ "Unwired Labs Coverage Map". Retrieved 2014-05-01.
  5. ^ "opencellid.org Realtime Coverage Map". Retrieved 2014-02-22.
  6. ^ "Stats WiGLE". Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  7. ^ "Stats Mozilla Location Service". Retrieved 2014-03-12.
  8. ^ "Stats OpenSignalMap". Retrieved 2014-02-22.
  9. ^ "openBmap". Retrieved 2014-02-22.
  10. ^ "Stats Mobisy".
  11. ^ "Stats cellmapper". Retrieved 2012-12-28.
  12. ^ "Stats opencelldb". Retrieved 2014-02-22.
  13. ^ "geomena". Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  • OpenCellID - an open source project, aiming to create a complete database of Cell IDs worldwide, with their locations
  • cellidfinder - Find the coordinates of any known CellID.
  • openBmap - a free and open map of wireless communicating objects (e.g. cellular antenna, Wi-Fi access points...)
  • MRVFONE - some information on Cell IDs in Australia
  • minigps - some information on Cell IDs in china
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