Patent ID: 7528714

Claim:
A system for tracking the location of mobile entities using a constellation of satellites of a satellite positioning system, said tracking system comprising: a wireless communication network; one or more mobile devices, each said mobile device being associated with a particular mobile entity and comprising means for electronically communicating with said wireless communication network and means for receiving and interpreting positioning signals from one or more satellites to determine a then-current geographic position of that mobile device; and a central position tracking platform, said central position tracking platform being in electronic communication with said wireless communication network and including a server running a position tracking application and a database for storing position tracking information regarding said mobile entities, and said central position tracking platform having a front end interface for enabling a user to review said position tracking information in real time, wherein each said mobile device is configured to transmit a location report message upon a position request, said location report message containing position information of the mobile device originating the message and being transmitted via said wireless communication network to said central position tracking platform where said position information is stored in said database, and wherein if a mobile device cannot determine said then-current position, then said location report message from said mobile device contains information selected from a group consisting of: a last-known position, a set of satellite positioning signal data, and an identification of why said mobile device could not determine said then-current position.