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Wireless systems provider Ruckus announced the release of their Smart Positioning Technology (SPoT) service, a cloud-based smart positioning location-based service (LBS) that gives carriers, service providers and enterprises the ability to deliver a wide range of value-added services over Ruckus Smart WiFi networks.
Embedded with a patented Indoor Positioning Algorithm gained from the company’s recent acquisition of YFind Technologies, new and existing Ruckus Smart WiFi access points are now capable of more powerful and accurate client positioning for indoor or dense urban environments, where GPS doesn’t always work.
The technology gives service providers and enterprises the ability to leverage Smart WiFi access points with location technology and techniques that can automatically pinpoint and track the physical location of WiFi-enabled devices, without having to deploy a higher density of additional WiFi hardware or any client software.
The SPoT smart positioning solution includes the SPoT Positioning Engine, which pinpoints in real time a user’s location in any indoor environment, a Location Analytics Dashboard that delivers a set of client location information, and engagement tools including a software development kit (SDK) and a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) to power mobile apps.
“We see location-based services to be one of the key drivers for wireless LAN market growth starting in 2014,” said Rohit Mehra, vice president of network infrastructure, for IT research firm IDC. “As with other cloud applications, cloud-based location services can offer scalable, elastic compute resources for enterprises and service providers to collect, monitor and provide real-time analytics that are essential to providing rapid insight on user location and behavior, enabling improved user satisfaction or other business services that can be monetized.”
While other location analytics technologies are proprietary and limited to users that have an on-premises location appliance, SPoT is completely cloud-based and offers APIs for third-party developers.
Venues with the company’s Smart WiFi network installed do not need any additional hardware to be location-intelligent and can immediately take advantage of third-party analytics and mobile-application offerings if preferred.
With the SPoT service, network operators can deliver location-relevant content to users based on their proximity to points of interest, including timely retail offers, or even security and safety notices.
Ruckus is also introducing the SPoT location ecosystem, a dedicated partner program for third-party application developers. Within the SPoT location ecosystem, partners are provided with an open API and SDK to develop customized location analytics and mobile apps that leverage SPoT technology to deliver differentiated services for a range of market use cases.
“Our innovations in location-based client positioning are driving new opportunities for operators and enterprises to easily leverage their Ruckus WiFi infrastructure to support intelligent positioning services indoors, where people use WiFi most,” Selina Lo, president and CEO of Ruckus, said in a statement. “Our unique cloud-based service approach gives customers a simple and powerful way to add immense value to their Smart WiFi networks, and the ability to easily enable new services. Cloud-based service enablement also allows for instant service provisioning without significant capital contribution.”