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802.11 wireless has truly blossomed in the past decade, moving from a technology that was once thought of as primarily a productivity enhancement for vertical industries to one now pervasive throughout society. The wide-spread acceptance of Wi-Fi networks has fueled this dramatic adoption, from deployments in offices and distribution centers to homes and ever-multiplying wireless metropolitan areas. Maturing rapidly and reaching critical mass, this widespread adoption has driven down the cost of wireless infrastructure dramatically and has resulted in the availability of higher quality equipment at lower cost.

The rapid increase in the adoption rate of Wi-Fi coupled with the availability of high quality infrastructure at reasonable cost are key factors behind the flurry of activity regarding Wi-Fi location-based services. Not to be confused with solutions requiring a dedicated, independent infrastructure of location receivers and RFID tag readers, research and development in Wi-Fi location prediction techniques has facilitated the emergence of indoor RF location tracking systems based fundamentally on IEEE 802.11 infrastructure. In combination with the frenetic race to implement RFID systems in the consumer and distribution supply chains, these have all combined to form a "perfect storm" of sorts, transforming what was once a general market passing interest in location-based services into one that well positions 802.11-based location-based services as a potential must-have application for Wi-Fi wireless.

It is not difficult to understand why this is so. With integrated location tracking, enterprise wireless LANs become much more valuable as a corporate business asset. This is especially true in today's fast-paced and highly competitive marketplace, where an otherwise well-positioned enterprise may falter against its peers not because of a lack of necessary assets, but rather due to its inability to quickly locate and re-deploy those assets to address today's rapidly changing business climate. Enterprise network administrators, security personnel, users, asset owners and others have expressed great interest in location-based services to allow them to better address key issues in their environments, such as the following:

• The need to quickly and efficiently locate valuable assets and key personnel.
• Improving productivity via effective asset and personnel allocation.
• Reducing loss because of the unauthorized removal of assets from company premises.
• Improving customer satisfaction by rapid location of critical service-impacting assets.
• Improving WLAN planning and tuning capabilities.
• Coordinating Wi-Fi device location with security policy enforcement.
• Determining the location of rogue devices.
• Monitoring the health and status of key assets in their environment and receiving prompt notification of changes.
• Receiving prompt notification when unauthorized addition or removal of assets occurs.

This guide discusses the location-aware Cisco Unified Wireless Network (UWN). It is focused on indoor location-based services design considerations and select deployment topics. References to applicable existing documentation are made throughout the document, and a wealth of material is provided addressing topics such as:

• The fundamentals of positioning technologies including lateration, angulation, and pattern recognition approaches.
• How Cisco RF Fingerprinting operates and how it compares to other approaches.
• The architecture of the location-aware Cisco UWN.
• Design best practices, including voice, data, and location-based service coexistence.
• Tips on proper installation and configuration.