Airespace adds location features

Airespace, a supplier of wireless LAN management and switching solutions, has added location capabilities, including radio frequency identification tags, to its enterprise WLAN platform.

The product suite, Airespace Wireless Location Services, consists of location software with RF finger-printing technology; a location appliance with scalability to track thousands of users simultaneously; an application programming interface that allows the location application to interface with external software from enterprise resource planning or E-911 systems; and 802.11 RFID transceivers (also called "tags") for user devices roaming on the enterprise wireless networks. Corporate IT staffs can use the RFID tags to track their employee users.

Unlike traditional RFID systems that require deployment of special sensors, 802.11-based transceivers can be tracked by the wireless LAN itself, according to Alan Cohen, vice president of marketing and product management at Airespace. The Airespace solution uses Bluesoft's Aeroscout technology to enable RFID tagging based on Wi-Fi technology.

The new capabilities will be available in the third quarter this year, but will be demonstrated this week at the Networld+Interop trade show in Las Vegas.

The location services suite is integrated with Airespace’s existing wireless LAN system, which includes the company’s model 4000 WLAN switch, 4100 WLAN appliance, 1200 access point, intelligent RF access point and control system software.