SCIENCE

Ekahau has announced an upgrade to its flagship RTLS solution. The upgrade includes the launch of Ekahau RTLS Controller (ERC), which introduces tighter integration with wireless network infrastructure platforms from leading network providers. Other enhancements to ERC include support for improved Wi-Fi tag management capabilities, additional sensor functionality and an expanded list of tracked Wi-Fi devices, including tags from other RTLS vendors.

Ekahau's Wi-Fi-based RTLS solution has emerged as the market-leading platform for many industries including healthcare, mining and manufacturing. Ekahau has claimed the top spot in full RTLS system deployments winning four out of five head-to-head customer evaluations. This has resulted in several large healthcare systems ordering enterprise-wide RTLS solutions with thousands of Wi-Fi tags for assets, staff and patients. Ekahau's performance, coupled with a full portfolio of Wi-Fi network analysis tools, provides customers with solutions that are quickly implemented over their existing enterprise-wide Wi-Fi networks.

"The upgrades to our location tracking solution are part of a greater evolution. No longer is RTLS used just as a 'location engine' to simply find assets," said Arttu Huhtiniemi, vice president of Product Management at Ekahau. "Today's RTLS must be able to perform a wide variety of supporting functionalities like text messaging, over-the-air tag management, sensing, execution of business rules, and several other unique functions that leverage the overall Ekahau architecture and extended functionality."

As Ekahau's fifth-generation location server, ERC builds on and replaces the Ekahau Positioning Engine (EPE), which was launched as in 2002 as the world's first Wi-Fi-based location server. ERC incorporates EPE's patented algorithms and innovations, and expands it by tightly integrating with wireless network infrastructure, using non-associating tags and providing the capability to track any Wi-Fi device on leading controller-based networks such as Aerohive, Aruba Networks, Cisco Systems, Meru Networks and Motorola.

Unlike competing solutions, ERC is also able to perform two-way communication with Wi-Fi location tags over the Wi-Fi network. This provides support for a wide variety of Ekahau "smart Wi-Fi tag" functions, such as remote tag configuration and messaging, changing tag beacon rates, and local alerting and sensing services. Other key capabilities of the ERC platform include the ability to detect "micro zone" areas down to less than three feet, by using infrared assisted tags with battery-powered Ekahau Location Beacons. This solution enables 100 percent room and sub-room level accuracy where the Wi-Fi network design may not support precise positioning.

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Ekahau RTLS is a complete enterprise solution comprised of ERC server software, Ekahau Vision application software, Ekahau Wi-Fi tags and Ekahau Site Survey (ESS) software tools. As a software-based solution, ERC also can be used in a cloud computing architecture. This option allows large enterprises to centralize the servers running Ekahau RTLS software while providing RTLS services to facilities across the state, country or even across continents. As a result, enterprises do not need to deploy servers, appliances or any other infrastructure at sites where RTLS services are in use.

ERC is available now. Customers who subscribe to Ekahau's support and maintenance program are eligible for a free upgrade.