Platform aids location-aware Wi-Fi applications

Wireless LAN (WLAN) application vendor Newbury Networks has released what it says is the industry’s first “presence” platform for location-aware Wi-Fi applications. “The Newbury Presence Platform allows enterprises to leverage both the ‘who’ and the ‘where’ to deliver critical information and services to key personnel when they need it,” said Newbury’s president and chief executive, Michael Maggio.

Newbury’s own Wi-Fi Watchdog and Wi-Fi Workplace software already run on the Presence Platform. Newbury has also announced Active Asset, a new application based on the platform that allows hardware assets to be tracked in real time over companies’ WLANs.

The Newbury Presence Platform system polls multiple WLAN access points (APs) to track positional data. Laptops, phones, PDAs, other assets and even people can be tracked in real time and their activity can be logged and reported.

Newbury said that objects and locations can be defined and policy definitions created, which can be used as event triggers to raise alerts or to start location-based services. For instance, users moving into an area with a Wi-Fi phone and making a call could be provisioned with a specific AP to handle the call with a guaranteed quality of service (QoS).

Presence Platform applications can include a graphical user interface (GUI), showing the real-time position, activity and status of all tracked assets – locating them on a building plan in a room on a floor, for example. The new software integrates with standard wireless infrastructures and other location-based positioning software from Cisco and Aruba.