Wi-Fi feature delivers indoor navigation, asset tracking, and network management
Austin, Texas, February 22, 2017 – Wi-Fi® now includes advanced capabilities that bring location determination indoors to meet growing market demand for mobile location-based services. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Location™ brings the same great user experience indoors as is expected from outdoor location-based services (LBS), and enables the creation of new, feature-rich applications and services that will benefit many markets including enterprise, retail, manufacturing, and healthcare.
Wi-Fi Location™, based on the Fine Timing Measurement (FTM) protocol from IEEE 802.11-2016, delivers meter-level accuracy for indoor device location data. This standardized approach for precisely determining location opens new opportunities for mobile services. By leveraging the ubiquity of Wi-Fi networks, Wi-Fi Location delivers position data without the need to deploy a separate or proprietary network infrastructure. Wi-Fi Location supports indoor navigation, asset tracking, network management, emergency services, and other LBS without the sacrifices often associated with indoor use.
“Wi-Fi is ubiquitous in smartphones and in network deployments around the world, giving it unparalleled reach for indoor location-based applications,” said Samuel McLaughlin, research analyst, ABI Research. “Wi-Fi Location accuracy opens new opportunities for consumer and business applications, filling a gap left by the unavailability of GPS indoors.”
Wi-Fi Location delivers its inherent accuracy by determining the distance between two Wi-Fi devices – such as an Access Point (AP) and smartphone – by measuring the time that it takes for the wireless signal to travel from one device to the other. Until now, devices typically determined indoor location by measuring signal strength which has limited accuracy, or fingerprinting which is more difficult to maintain. Meter-level accuracy enabled with Wi-Fi Location brings new levels of precision to indoor location, helping to drive a wide variety of applications and services and contributing to a mobile location-based services market which is set to reach nearly $35 billion by 2020. Wi-Fi Location expands the feature set enabled by Wi-Fi devices, bringing value to service providers, mobile device users, and venue operators alike.
“Location-based services enhance the mobile experience, and Wi-Fi Location provides the indoor accuracy necessary to deliver a range of enhanced services, such as navigation and asset tracking,” said Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO of Wi-Fi Alliance. “A Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ solution broadens the ecosystem and scenarios in which location-based services can be used.”
The first Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Location products which comprise the test bed for interoperability certification are:
- Broadcom 802.11ac Acculocate Access Point
- Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260
- Marvell AP-8964 802.11ac 4x4 Wave2 Concurrent Dual Band Access Point
- Mediatek MT663X 802.11abgn/ac Ref. STA
- Qualcomm IPQ4018 802.11ac 2-stream Dual-band, Dual-concurrent Router
- Qualcomm IPQ8065 802.11ac 4-stream Dual-band, Dual-concurrent Router
- Qualcomm Snapdragon™ 820 Development Kit
- Realtek RTL8812BU
For more information, please download our whitepaper or visit: www.wi-fi.org/wi-fi-location.
About Wi-Fi Alliance®
www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has certified more than 30,000 Wi-Fi products. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.
Media contacts:
Stephanie Burke
Highwire PR for Wi-Fi Alliance
wi-fi@highwirepr.com
+1-646-838-1190 ext. 48