10.1 Introduction

Location information has been traditionally used for the positioning systems to estimate and track the location of a target device or object. The tremendous growth in the number of mobile users initiates the development of location-based services, which are mainly based on the positioning systems. Moreover, the demands on the higher Quality of Service (QoS) such as global mobility and seamless connectivity from the users as well as wireless network operators motivate to exploit the utilization of location information in the wireless networks. Recently, it has been recognized that location-based services are not the only applications, where the location information can be used, but also it can be utilized to solve some other issues in the wireless networks. The applications based on the utilization of location information are folded under four categories: location-based services, network optimization, transceiver algorithm development and optimization, and environment characterization. For instance, location-assisted handover mechanism, routing, drop call management, and adaptive coverage systems are some examples of network optimization.

Increasing utilization of location information for different applications in the wireless networks and ever-growing number of mobile users require incorporating a location information hierarchy into network structure. Although some of the existing wireless network structures have a miniature location information management system, cognitive wireless networks [1 3] are promising systems that comprehensive location information management systems (location awareness...