WiFi

Realtime Tracking: WiFi is the Ticket

Posted by samc on July 24th, 2007

Wi-Fi is Muscling in on RFID’s Location-Based Services Markets, says ABI Research.

The large and growing installed base of Wi-Fi equipment means new opportunities for using Wi-Fi in unorthodox ways. One of the most interesting is the growing trend towards using Wi-Fi to provide real-time location services (RTLS) for asset management, security, and work-in-progress tracking, which have traditionally been the province of proprietary RFID solutions.

Real Time Location Systems use triangulation (to determine location) and RFID (to determine identity).

Today this market, at a mere $59 million in 2007 revenues, can best be described as “embryonic,” but ABI forecasts it to reach $839 million in 2012.

“In the past, companies wishing to deploy RTLS had to buy proprietary RFID systems, including very expensive readers. Now a large installed base of Wi-Fi equipment worldwide is making Wi-Fi-based RTLS cost-effective for companies that had never considered it before.”

In comparison with RFID, Wi-Fi-based RTLS does suffer some disadvantages. It is somewhat less accurate, especially outdoors; it is less secure, and it can require the addition of up to 20% more Wi-Fi access points to a network. But for a company with a Wi-Fi network already in place, it needs no extra cabling; it is standards-based; and above all it is cost-effective: the RTLS functions are handled by specialized software, which forms the largest portion of the investment.

Cisco is the current market leader, says Schatt, but Trapeze and Aruba are also very active in this market.

Since 2000, residents in Lyon, France, have been able to use their Técély RFID-enabled transit passes to pay bus, tramway and Metro fares, says RFID Journal. Now those same prepaid smart cards can be used to rent bikes from 175 locations across the city and its suburbs. More than 2,000 rental bicycles are available to be leased and returned across a dense network of bicycle racks placed every 300 meters or so, using a Técély pass or specially created prepaid smart cards.

Velov, the company behind its deployment, says the bikes are already being well used. “It’s a big success because 30,000 persons use it, and each bike is rented 10 to 12 times per day. The system isn’t expected to be profitable. The aim is not to make money, but to promote the use of the bike in the city,” says Agathe Albertini, communications director at outdoor advertising company JCDecaux, based in Paris.

When a customer uses the machine to buy a pass or add credit to a vélo’v or Técély smart card, he or she must go to a kiosk to swipe the card.

The kiosk will provide a code number and the number of the bike rack for the bike issued. The customer then enters that code number to select that bike and unlock it from its rack.

Might be handy for enabling library users to check out a $100 laptop, too.

Ocean City, a South Jersey beach town plans to provide electronic wristbands that can pay for access to the beach, as well as food, drinks and parking, says the Philadelphia Inquirer. The $3 million network would be owned by the city but paid for by a vendor. The city has requested proposals from interested firms, which are due by the end of the month, and hopes to award a contract by early September.

The network would enable city officials to know exactly how many people are on the beach at a particular time. The network is estimated to generate $14 million in revenue for the city over the first five years, and $12 million for the company that operates it, through user fees and advertisements to be sold on the network.

source : dailywireless.org