Difference between Mobile-centric and network-centric

Question

I am new and I hope I am posting in the right section. I am developping an iOS app using indoor advertisement. The app scan fro iBeacons and when it detect one it sends a get request to the server which determine the position of the mobile device and send back a response. I found this text on the internet

Mobile-centric and network-centric technologies are different only in where the data and/or logic resides for calculating the location of a mobile device. For example, the American Museum of Natural History’s original Explorer mobile wayfinding app used Cisco’s Mobility Services Engine (MSE), which was a device that sat on the network and processed the raw signal-strength data provided by the mobile device to triangulate the location based on a map that was managed and stored in the MSE. The new Explorer still uses triangulation to determine the phone’s location. However, the map and beacon locations are downloaded to the phone, and processing is done locally in the app.

Considering this text, in my use case I am using a network-centricsystem bacuase the location logic reside in the server. Is that true ? I thought that device-centric location is when the mobile device scan for beacons and network-centric is when the beacon send it's position to the nodes.

Answer 1

Beacons are devices that send signal all the time. Also mobile device is scanning for beacons all the time. Those things doesn't change based on technology. You are using network-centric technology. So what is the diffrence:

1. Mobile-centric

   • location is calculated on your phone

2. Network-centric

   • data is send to server which returns your location based on given data

Network-centric is often used when doing task on phone may:

• drain too much energy
• be not fast enough

I'd say that triangulation doesn't require server for calculations as is quite easy and you may notice, that waiting for server response may be not fast enough for displaying location to user.

Answer 2

In your case you're using a mobile-centric. Your mobile device is determining where it is at by using its physical distance to a an iBeacon. You have to tie a beacon to a location so you phone will say, "Ok, I see beacon 1 which I know is in Room A".

If you were going for network-centric, then the iBeacons would be telling the mobile device where it was. (even though this is not how iBeacons work but as an example) The beacon would be discovering the phone and saying, "Hey mobile device, you're in Room A".

So you see in the latter the network is telling the mobile device where it is, thus "network-centric". Where in the first case the mobile device is determine where it is, thus "mobile-centric". So even though you are pinging a server for the data associated with a location, the device is still telling the server where it is in physical space based on the proximity to a beacon.