Cisco is announcing an advanced Wi-Fi location data analytics platform
and partnerships with mobile chip vendor Qualcom as well as AT&T. All together, the platform enables content providers and venues to deliver customized location based experiences and offers to mobile users.
On the silicon side, Qualcom is now embedding Cisco technology on its silicon to enable a more precise level of indoor location identification. Murali Nemani, Senior Director, Marketing, Service Provider Mobility at Cisco, told EnterpriseNetworkingPlanet that the new indoor location capabilities can be thought of as an indoor equivalent to GPS. GPS is pervasive when users are outside, but inside of a physical location, be it a retail mall or say a museum, regular satellite based GPS does not work.
The silicon based solution will begin showing up in Qualcom based chipsets in early 2013 and will leverage capabilities in Cisco’s Wireless Access Points to pinpoint user location with granular accuracy. Cisco’s Mobility Services Engine which is a technology that first entered market in 2008, is at the core of the solution.
Prashanth Shenoy, Senior Marketing Manager, Enterprise Wireless Networking Group at Cisco noted that there is now also a set of Mobility Services Engine APIs that developers will be able to leverage. Cisco calls their mobile development location technology for developers, Mobile Concierge. By accessing the Cisco technology, wireless developers will be able to receive context awareness information from the wireless infrastructure.
Read the full story at EnterpriseNetworkingPlanet:
Indoor GPS? Cisco Debuts New Location Awareness Technology
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.