Cisco Unveils Wireless Location Solution and New Unified Wireless Network Software Release

Cisco has announced an architected industry first -- integrated Wi-Fi chokepoint and telemetry services into the Cisco Location Solution. Cisco's Location Solution, which includes the Cisco Unified Wireless Network and integrated partner applications and active/passive tag offerings, is designed to mobilize assets across an enterprise environment. This solution is made possible by a new, major extension to Cisco's Unified Wireless Network family, which provides a broad array of rich mobility services and new wireless LAN management capabilities.

"Real-time location and management of mobile assets is crucial in order to deliver rich business experiences anytime, anywhere and across any network," said Brett Galloway, vice president and general manager of Cisco's Wireless Networking Business Unit. "With the implementation of a Cisco Unified Wireless Network and supporting Location Solution, businesses can take advantage of their WLAN to incorporate location as a mobility service to improve business processes and allow for better business resource decisions."

With the new Cisco Location Solution, organizations can track high-value assets and gain real-time visibility into the status of specific devices or their environments, including temperature, battery power, humidity levels, usage status, and more. Customers across many industries benefit from this by gaining a new opportunity to monitor and streamline operations, improve inventory management and curb asset loss.

"With the Cisco Location Solution, customers can extend their Wi-Fi network to drive more productivity and business value out of their network infrastructure," said Brian Brouillette, vice president, Mission Critical, Networking and Education Services, HP Services. "With Hardware Support, Software Support and Implementation Services provided worldwide by HP, customers have a trusted source to design, build, integrate, and maintain a Cisco wireless environment that allows them to be intelligently aware of how their mobile assets are used in near real-time."

Infusion of Chokepoint Capabilities Extend Wireless Location Services
Integral to the Cisco Location Solution is the new ability to utilize chokepoint technology and telemetry capabilities. By teaming with chokepoint suppliers AeroScout and WhereNet, chokepoints and associated tags can be used in conjunction with a Cisco Unified Wireless Network to optimize location and tracking of mobile assets. Customers can implement chokepoints that wirelessly monitor thresholds, such as doorways or hallways. When a Wi-Fi tagged asset moves through a chokepoint, an alarm can be triggered, thus providing data recording and notification of an asset moving from one area to another. This new integration of chokepoint capabilities with the Cisco Location Solution brings asset tracking to a new level of sophistication and accuracy.

"With the Cisco Location Solution, our hospital can extend its Wi-Fi network in an unprecedented manner," said Professor Bart Sijnave, University Hospital of Gent in Belgium. "By setting up chokepoint zones, we can keep track of mobile hospital equipment, as well as our patients, by having them connected to monitors that generate alarms to update us on their status."

Cisco Location Solution Adds Power of Telemetry
In addition with this release, customers can take advantage of new telemetry capabilities. Telemetry provides real-time status information on any tagged item, and with it people can remotely monitor and manage a vast number of devices that require regular interaction or inspection. The Cisco Location Solution is capable of monitoring tagged devices, such as medical equipment, production tool kits, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, pumps or other remote items and equipment that need to communicate or relay changing data, such as temperature, pressure, humidity, status, availability, quantities, distance or motion.

As with location information, telemetry data is available to business-specific applications via open APIs of the Cisco Wireless Location Appliance, which allows businesses to respond and proactively manage systems before critical faults develop. As well, with constant telemetry monitoring and data collection, predictive models can be developed and deployed with supportive crisis response plans in place.