Information Week: Like Bluetooth, the Wi-Fi Direct standard will enable peer-to-peer device connections without the need for a Wi-Fi hotspot.

By Marin Perez, InformationWeek

The Wi-Fi Alliance announced a new specification Wednesday that will enable smartphones, laptops, and other electronics to connect to each other without the use of a traditional Wi-Fi hotspot.

The Wi-Fi Direct specification will enable devices to create peer-to-peer connections that have similar data transfer speeds and range as typical Wi-Fi. The alliance said the new standard will be faster than existing ad-hoc modes, and it could be used to enable laptops to quickly connect to a printer, as well as for consumer-oriented purposes like peer-to-peer game machine connections. Wi-Fi Direct devices will also be able to connect with existing Wi-Fi certified devices for one-to-one connections, or several devices can connect simultaneously.

The alliance, anticipating that devices with the new specification could find their way into corporations, has built in some security features such WPA2, as well as management options to ensure Wi-Fi direct devices don't become insecure bridges between the corporate infrastructure and other networks. The alliance expects to begin certifying Wi-Fi Direct devices in 2010.

"Wi-Fi users worldwide will benefit from a single-technology solution to transfer content and share applications quickly and easily among devices, even when a Wi-Fi access point isn't available," said Edgar Figueroa, executive director of the Wi-Fi Alliance, in a statement. "The impact is that Wi-Fi will become even more pervasive and useful for consumers and across the enterprise."

The new specification has the potential to displace other peer-to-peer connection standards, but other wireless transfer protocols have been boosting their features. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group has shown off the Bluetooth 3.0 standard, which offers faster transfer speeds than previous versions. Near-field communication is also gaining steam as a viable way to implement mobile payment systems, andSony (NYSE: SNE)'s TransferJet protocol offers wireless transfer speeds of up to 560 Mbps between devices.

Please also check another related article http://www.rft.com/images/docs/HIMSSrls_02-08.pdf for Peer to Peer Wi-Fi RTLS.

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Coolest Gadgets: Ekahau might not be familiar to many people, but it boasts the title of being the leading provider of High Performance Wi-Fi-based Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) in the market. Currently, they have just expanded their hardware portfolio with a new device – the T301W, a wristband tag that was specially designed to be used in applications that determine the precise location of people. Being small in size, it fits onto your wrist comfortably, making it the ideal device for use in hospitals. After all, knowing the real-time location of an adult patient, child or a visitor in hospitals is a requirement for ensuring patient safety and satisfaction.
Apart from that, the wristband tag would also be at home when used in other places including amusement parks, cruise ships and other hospitality venues – basically anywhere where there is a potential for children or adults to be separated from their group. This got me thinking as well – it would be great for tour operators to slap their ‘party’ with one of these each just in case the more independent minded tourists chart out their own trail, especially in crowded places. Businesses can also keep track of visitors to make sure they remain off-limits to sensitive areas, hence preventing unwarranted snooping around.

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Tech Target: Meru Networks has pioneered a new wireless LAN troubleshooting strategy that enables end-to-end user simulation in what resembles an out-of-band management system, and is the first in the space to offer such depth of monitoring and reporting.

"This new SAM, or Service Assurance Module, introduces this notion of a dial tone into the [wireless LAN]," said Andrew Borg, senior research analyst with Aberdeen Group. "It's a health check with very low bandwidth utilization … every hand-off of the data through all the layers of the network is being monitored for its health 24-by-7."

Meru's SAM platform takes advantage of a core differentiator in Meru's overall wireless LAN infrastructure: Its access points (APs) all operate in the same channel frequency. Most WLAN vendors take a microcell approach, and have their APs operate on different channels to limit interference. With Meru, the APs assign a MAC address to each client on the network, and that client is passed from AP to AP transparently. That way when a laptop is moved about an office, it sees just one giant AP rather than dozens handing it off across the network.

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Earth Times: CHARLOTTE, NC and NEWPORT BEACH, CA -- 10/14/09 -- Patient Care Technology Systems (PCTS), a subsidiary of Consulier Engineering, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSLR), today announced that Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian has implemented the company's Amelior EDTracker® solution to automatically track patients in its 66,000-census emergency department. The solution integrates an ultrasonic real-time locating system (RTLS) from PCTS business partner, Sonitor Technologies.

Amelior EDTracker is part of the Amelior Enterprise Visibility Suite(TM) which comprises departmental to facility-wide solutions to streamline patient flow through the real-time visualization and documentation of patient care. Hospitals can scale their implementations by the entities they wish to track (movable medical equipment, patients, staff), operational goals (asset management, patient flow, infection control) and by scope of care (acute care, outpatient services, inpatient floors, facility-wide).

The web-based Amelior EDTracker software visualizes patient flow by automatically identifying the location and status of patients and equipment without requiring manual updates by busy caregivers. Location information is generated by integrating with a facility's choice of RTLS. Hoag selected ultrasonic locating from Sonitor Technologies for its room and bay-level locating precision and accuracy. Workflow algorithms within the Amelior EDTracker software interpret the meaning of location, movement and interactions between patients, staff and equipment to automatically communicate patient care milestones as they occur. Interfaces to ADT, lab, and radiology systems integrate additional patient and order status information creating a centralized workflow communication and management portal for the emergency department.

"The implementation of automatic patient tracking is a significant step forward in workflow visibility and automation for our emergency department," said Raymond Ricci MD, FACEP, director of emergency medicine. "We are dedicated to providing our patients with the most efficient and safest care possible. Amelior EDTracker is helping us to transform the efficiency of our department."

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Business Wire: REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Following the recent announcement of an agreement between Premier Purchasing Partners, L.P., and AeroScout, the Premier healthcare alliance announced today that it has selected AeroScout as the sole source provider of RFID Asset Tracking and Management solutions for Premier’s ASCEND™ program. The three-year agreement covers AeroScout’s Wi-Fi RTLS healthcare visibility solutions for all ASCEND members. AeroScout’s solutions will leverage ASCEND members’ standard Wi-Fi networks and offer a broad range of applications and capabilities that deliver strong returns for hospital organizations.

ASCEND (Accelerated Supply Chain Endeavor) is designed to help healthcare providers achieve and sustain rapid improvements in supply chain performance. It also assists Premier alliance member hospitals in ongoing efforts to control and reduce costs through simplified purchasing processes, appropriate clinical utilization and specially negotiated contracts. More than 90 participants that represent approximately $2.7 billion in supply chain purchasing volume and close to 24,000 hospital beds are collaborating to share best practices in supply chain efficiency as a part of the program.

“Premier and ASCEND are committed to providing members with systems and solutions that improve quality, heighten safety, manage risk and reduce costs," said Mike Alkire, President of Premier Purchasing Partners.

AeroScout addresses the entire set of visibility application requirements of hospital organizations in the most comprehensive and cost efficient manner. With AeroScout’s scalable Unified Asset Visibility solutions, customers can work with a single, proven provider and implement one platform for all current and future asset, patient and staff visibility needs. AeroScout’s solutions include real-time Asset Management, Equipment Maintenance and Humidity & Temperature Monitoring and are exclusively endorsed by the American Hospital Association.

“We’re proud to be the exclusive provider of RFID Asset Tracking and Management Solutions for Premier’s ASCEND program,” said Gabi Daniely, Vice President of Marketing and Product Strategy at AeroScout. “This selection reinforces AeroScout’s position as the top vendor in the category and the market, and we look forward to working with ASCEND hospitals toward the common goal of improving operational performance as well as overall patient safety and care.”

For more information on enrolling in ASCEND, please visit www.premierinc.com/ascend.

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TMC Net: By Marisa Torrieri, TMCnet Editor

Since Arnold Clark Automobiles upgraded to a WiFi (News - Alert)-and-RFID-based system via the Cisco Unified Wireless Network this summer, cars have become so much easier to track that the European independent auto dealer has already saved 125 hours a month, which means two service workers can focus on other areas.


Before implementing the Cisco (News - Alert) Unified Wireless Network, “the dealership -- which has 145 locations and 8,000 employees across the United Kingdom – would sometimes find it challenging to track down the right car for the right customer quickly,” saidChris Kozup ( News - Alert), senior manager of mobility solutions for networking giant Cisco. The flagship dealership, located in Stafford, maintains an inventory of 1,000 cars for sale at any given time on a 12-acre lot and 74,000 square-foot showroom.

But when a customer arrives to the sales lot, associates typically have less than 10 minutes to engage the customer and find the right car or they could lose the sales opportunity. With the new Cisco-based system in place, a sales associate can pinpoint the exact location of a desired car within minutes. First, the sales person goes to a terminal with Arnold Clark’s inventory management software that is connected to the AeroScout Vehicle Tracking Solution application. They select the parameters – for example, “customer wants a 2007 blue four-door” -- and plug in that information. The tracking system scans the inventory to see the cars that match the criteria, and then, “pings into” the Cisco “Mobility Services Engine” to determine where the car is located. Because cars wear active Radio Frequency Identification (or RFID) tags that send out signals to the tracking system, their location on a floor plan or lot is exact, Kozup said.

“What the Cisco Mobility Services Engine does is allows us to take that location information and put it into the AeroScout Vehicle tracking solution,” Kozup said. “And the combination of that information with the tracking solution helps the car sales associate know where a car is located on a floor or lot plan.”

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Wireless Developer Network: Reston, VA - Ekahau Inc., a leading provider of Wi-Fi-based Real Time Location Systems (RTLS), today announced a new Ekahau Site Survey (ESS, version 4.6), which adds time-saving site survey capabilities for 802.11n, as well as legacy 802.11a/b/g networks. ESS is the only tool in the market to combine passive survey and active end-to-end Wi-Fi network testing – a feature called Hybrid Survey. With a single site survey walkthrough, the passive testing will provide information on the wireless signals, while the active testing measures end-to-end connectivity status, packet loss, delay times and roaming history. This cuts the survey time to one-third when compared to competing site survey solutions.

Hybrid Survey quickly reveals hard-to-detect network design errors that are not seen by traditional site survey tools or Wi-Fi management software. Such errors may be caused by mis-configured security settings, Ethernet cabling and routing issues, as well as access point hardware failures, such as bridging failures and radio malfunctions. The packet loss and delay time measurements of the Hybrid Survey feature are increasingly important with 802.11n networks running VoIP applications, for example. At the same time, the passive measurements produce crystal-clear coverage and performance maps of the facility.

In addition to Hybrid Survey, the traditional passive measurements in the new ESS are more comprehensive: The new noise display allows instant detection of areas with high noise levels. In case of excessive noise levels, Ekahau Site Survey users also have the option to use the recently announced Spectrum Analyzer to further analyze and eliminate sources of noise.

“The message from the field is clear: Our customers and partners want to minimize the time spent deploying and troubleshooting Wi-Fi. The Hybrid Survey feature in Ekahau Site Survey 4.6 allows the user to completely verify the network with just one walk-through site survey.” said Jussi Kiviniemi, senior product manager at Ekahau. “The new ESS also demystifies Wi-Fi troubleshooting: simply take the laptop to the problematic location, and ESS will completely test the network – and tell you what’s wrong.”

Kiviniemi continued: “What further differentiates Ekahau Site Survey from its competition is its unique capability to use the collected site survey data for asset and people tracking applications (RTLS), just by adding Wi-Fi tags and the RTLS software. This means that ESS users are actually hitting three birds with one stone: during a single survey they perform passive as well as end-to-end testing, and calibrate the RTLS”. Ekahau RTLS is a Wi-Fi location tracking solution chosen by hundreds of enterprise customers in industries like healthcare, mining, and government for the purpose of asset tracking, staff safety, and process improvement applications.

Rick Murphy, course director for Wireless Training Solutions, and senior instructor of the CWNP Program added, “as the world’s authority on Wi-Fi network design and training, we of the CWNP Program stress the careful planning, implementation, and verification of wireless network designs. Wireless LAN deployment is subject to many pitfalls, especially today, with the high level of performance required by voice and video transmissions being carried over Wi-Fi. In addition, the new features offered by 802.11n make designing the wireless LAN more complicated than ever. We are extremely pleased to see our partner Ekahau release this new level of technology, which we feel will make manual site surveys faster, more comprehensive, and more accurate.”

Ekahau Site Survey 4.6 also brings improvements for 802.11n capabilities, and various usability improvements. Ekahau Site Survey 4.6 will be available at the beginning of November from Ekahau and its resellers and distributors. Reduced introductory pricing is available as of today, until the end of November. More information is available at www.ekahau.com/ess.

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Earth Times: BOSTON, Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Siemens Enterprise Communications Group (SEN Group), a premier provider of business communications solutions, and PosTrack Technologies have been chosen by Ottawa Regional Hospital and Healthcare Center (Ottawa Regional) to deliver a hosted unified communications (UC) solution. With the SEN Group OpenScape Voice Application and 24x7 monitoring and service desk and PosTrack ConnectPlus licensing, Ottawa Regional can enjoy advanced communications features without having to manage the system internally, making it easier to focus on their core business - healthcare.

While many healthcare providers have scaled back capital expenditures, Ottawa Regional continues to invest in patient care, adding a new cancer treatment and radiation oncology center, as well as an expanded diagnostic imaging center. Residents of LaSalle County, Illinois and surrounding communities benefit from a comprehensive range of healthcare services, including inpatient and outpatient medical and surgical care, emergency care, pre-natal and post-partum care, rehabilitation and physical therapy, behavioral health services, home health and hospice care.

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We license our GPStream and XYBRID solutions to location service providers, semiconductor vendors and mobile device manufacturers to help them deliver a Click’n Go!™ mobile location user experience on any mobile device.

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PervTrack – Real Time Locating System (RTLS) & PervTrack – Real Time Sensing System (RTSS) comprise of a unique set of tracking and sensing devices integrated with a core software engine for tracking, monitoring and management application suites. These solutions offer “Anytime Anywhere” visibility and control over enterprise objects and environment on a unified platform – using Active RFID devices, sensors and actuators integrated with IEEE 802.15.4 based Wireless Mesh Networks.

PervTrack – Real Time Locating System (RTLS) and PervTrack – Real Time Sensing System (RTSS) solutions are rapidly-deployable, accurate, reliable, easy-to-use and zero-configurable. These solutions offer measurable ROI in terms of enhanced productivity, better customer care and increased workforce safety.