What You Will Learn

The world is at an inflection point, where smart devices (phones, tablets, and laptops) are taking over as the predominant computing platform. While this can present various challenges from a wireless operations and management standpoint, it also opens up huge opportunities for business. That is because smart devices are location aware, and location is a strategic attribute for engaging with customers, employees and tracking high-value mobile resources.

In the past few years, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has become a default standard on most smart devices (primarily thanks to iBeacon and Eddystone). This means that the vast majority of mobile computing platforms are now location ready. The challenge comes, however, on the infrastructure side. Enterprises must determine how the wireless network can leverage BLE in a scalable, reliable and cost-effective way. Traditionally it has been very time consuming and expensive to deploy and manage physical beacons for BLE. The installation often requires comprehensive site surveys, which have to be redone whenever beacon placement changes (or the RF environment is altered). In addition, batteries in the beacons are expensive to replace, and the beacons themselves can be lost or stolen, which creates additional headaches for IT.

Introducing Cisco Virtual Beacon Technology

Cisco has developed a unique and highly innovative solution to the problem by combining sophisticated cloud-based software (Cisco® Connected Mobile Experiences (CMX) Cloud Beacon Center), on-premises 16-element steerable BLE antenna array (Cisco Beacon Point) and mobile software development kit (SDK) software for iOS and Android devices. This section provides details about how virtual beacon technology is the answer for scalable, reliable, and cost-effective solution for interacting with location aware mobile devices.

Cisco has recently introduced Cisco Beacon Point (AIR-VBLE1-K9) which is an industry-first virtual BLE (version 4.2) array. Cisco Beacon Point supports beaconing in Apple iBeacon, Google Eddystone and AltBeacon advertising formats.

Just like Wi-Fi access points, coverage area for a Beacon Point is 2,500 sq. ft. and they are deployed on the ceiling tiles. Beacon points are powered using standard PoE (802.3 af). Beacon points are compatible with typical indoor ceiling heights (13-15 ft.) found in indoor space. Beacon Points connect to Beacon Center over the internet using secure protocols for control plane and management traffic. Beacon points are an overlay network and do not have any software or hardware dependencies with existing Wi-Fi network.

Unlike traditional physical beacon, Beacon points have IP addresses and can be easily managed by network IT teams. Cisco Beacon Point (AIR-VBLE1-K9) have the hardware support for daisy chaining up to 4 Beacon Points when connected to 802.3at power in the future.