Ruckus Wi-Fi positioning system pinpoints users where GPS doesn't work

Ruckus Wireless has unveiled the Ruckus Smart Positioning Technology (SPoT) service.

This cloud-based service gives carriers, service providers and enterprises the ability to deliver location-based services using Wi-Fi in locations where GPS is not effective.

New and existing Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi access points are now capable of powerful and accurate client positioning for indoor or dense urban environments, where GPS doesn’t always work. By knowing where clients are located, companies are able to help them get wherever they need to go, making the network experience better for them, or use data from their location to optimise their experience.

Ruckus SPoT is completely cloud-based. While other location analytics technologies are proprietary and limited to users that have an on-premises location appliance, Ruckus SPoT offers APIs for third party developers.

Venues using Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi do not need any additional hardware to be “Location Intelligent” and can take advantage of third party analytics and mobile application offerings if preferred.

SPoT uses a patented Indoor Positioning Algorithm that was part of their recent acquisition of YFind Technologies.

The Ruckus SPoT smart positioning solution can pinpoint a user’s location in any indoor environment in real time. The SPoT Location Analytics Dashboard delivers a rich set of client location information, and the included SDK and a set of APIs allow developers to build “Location Intelligent” features mobile applications.

Ruckus is also introducing the Ruckus SPoT location ecosystem – a partner program for third party application developers.

Ruckus SPoT will be available worldwide in the second quarter of 2014 as a subscription-based service that can be purchased on either a one, three or five year basis for US$25 per Ruckus access point per month.

Available with the upcoming Ruckus ZoneFlexTM 9.8 version of system software, the Ruckus SPoT service requires no new hardware and can be used with indoor and outdoor Ruckus 802.11n access points such as the Ruckus ZoneFlex 7982, ZoneFlex 7782, ZoneFlex 7372 and ZoneFlex 7055 models, as well as future Ruckus ZoneFlex indoor and outdoor access points.