Wi-Fi Driving Location Tracking Applications

In-Stat : Wi-Fi is increasingly being utilized in location tracking applications, and Wi-Fi asset tags are expected to reach almost 2 million shipments in 2010. The Wi-Fi location tracking market is still nascent, and many highly changeable factors will decide how fast it grows over the next few years. Wi-Fi tags are utilized in Wi-Fi Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS) that utilize Wi-Fi access points (APs) to locate devices with external Wi-Fi tags or devices with embedded Wi-Fi.

Wi-Fi- based RTLS provides the two-fold advantage of being able to 1. leverage standard Wi-Fi infrastructure for location tracking (instead of having to purchase standalone location reader devices), and 2. track any devices with embedded Wi-Fi, including laptops, scanners, phones, etc., right along with those assets with Wi-Fi tags. So far, Wi-Fi RTLS has gained the most traction in healthcare, where Wi-Fi infrastructure has already been deployed on a relatively large scale, and where there exists many valuable assets to track, such as patient monitoring devices and wheelchairs.

• Vendors offering pure Wi-Fi- based RTLS include Ekahau and PanGo Networks. AeroScout (which does offer 802.11b-based tags), and WhereNet, offer more complex RTLS systems, providing for hardware for chokepoint applications and, in WhereNet’s case, a variety of vertical-specific asset tags (based on ANSI 371.1).

• Expectations are high for Wi-Fi tag chipsets from the likes of G2 Microsystems, which promises to provide higher integration and more functionality in Wi-Fi tag chipsets, and most importantly, significant cost reductions. With prices of Wi-Fi tags at approximately $60 today, the market could get a big push with lower-priced tags.

• Cisco has partnered with many of the Wi-Fi RTLS vendors, viewing location tracking as another valuable application that can be supported by Wi-Fi infrastructure, like data and voice. Trapeze Networks and Aruba have also begun to stake their ground in this space.

Recent In-Stat research, Wi-Fi Finds Itself in the Real Time Location Systems Market

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