Overview of Cisco Virtual BLE Beacon Solution

Transcription

1 Cisco Virtual Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Beacon Solution provides the operational simplicity necessary to deliver a scalable BLE beacon solution across the enterprise. Virtual BLE Beacons extend the capabilities of Cisco Connected Mobile Experiences (CMX) with proximity messaging indoor wayfinding and navigation for a richer location-aware engagement for the mobile device user. Enterprise IT teams no longer need to worry about stolen beacons or other cumbersome maintenance demands of physical battery-operated beacons. Cisco Virtual BLE Beacon Solution is a unique and highly innovative solution that combines sophisticated cloud software, purpose-built hardware and a mobile SDK to deliver wayfinding and proximity engagement experiences. Cisco Beacon Point is an industry-first virtual BLE array with 16 steerable antenna elements that can create multiple virtual beacons. Cisco Beacon Point supports beaconing in Apple ibeacon, Google Eddystone and AltBeacon advertising formats. IT teams can deploy Beacon Points in their venues to achieve desired coverage with each Beacon Point covering 2,500 sq.ft of area and mounted at heights up to 13 ft. Beacon Points are powered over standard PoE (802.3af or 802.3at) and connect over the internet to the CMX Cloud Beacon Center. Cisco Beacon Center is a subscription software delivered via the cloud. The Beacon Center application, offers a way to create virtual beacons anywhere in the coverage area by simple click, drag and drop operation from the user interface. Administrators can create proximity messages or use the built-in zone and path editor for analytics and wayfinding. Marketers can deliver real-time, location-aware, personalized content to increase customer engagement and measure effectiveness of the marketing campaigns. Cisco Virtual Beacon SDK supports ios and Android mobile devices. The SDK app receives the BLE beacon messages and sends the client details to the Cisco CMX cloud. The SDK app also displays the client location in real time on the client device. Cisco Beacon Point Module is a virtual BLE module compatible with Cisco Aironet 3800 Series Wi-Fi access points. This module is connected to the Cisco Aironet 3800 Series Wi-Fi access points using the PCIE insterface slot on the access point. Use of Cisco Beacon Point Module with Cisco Aironet 3800 Series access point will enhance the competitive advantage of Cisco Aironet 3800 Series access points with a first-in-class and best-in-class Cisco Virtual BLE Beacon solution currently available in the market. This solution offers an integrated solution rather an overlay expereience to the customers. Businesses can now focus on outcomes while reducing footprint of on premise servers and battery operated devices. Provisioning and deployment are quick and easy via the cloud. 1

2 Recommended Setup Note The Cisco CMX Cloud system includes several services including Cisco Virtual Beacon service. If you only have a Cisco Virtual Beacon service license, you will be automatically directed to Cisco Beacon Center. If you have multiple services licenses, the selected service dashboard is displayed and you can choose the Beacon Center to open Cisco Beacon Center. In Cisco Beacon Center, click application such as Connect. to view other available applications and choose to open any desired Recommended Setup, page 2 System Requirements, page 2 Bluetooth Low Energy Technology, page 3 Virtual Beacons, page 3 Cisco Beacon Point, page 4 Cisco Beacon Center, page 4 Cisco Virtual Beacon Architecture, page 5 Cisco Beacon Point Module, page 6 Recommended Setup System Requirements Follow these recommendations for Cisco Virtual Beacon solution to work efficiently: Place a Cisco Beacon Point at a height not more than 13 feet (3.9 m). Deploy one Cisco Beacon Point per 2500 square feet. Power a Cisco Beacon Point with PoE 802.3af Class 4 with 15.4 W power supply. The local power adapter option is not available. Use DHCP to assign a Cisco Beacon Point with an IP address. Establish a connection between a Cisco Beacon Point and Cisco CMX Cloud. Ensure client connectivity with Cisco CMX Cloud to get location information. The recommended software versions are: ios Version 9.3 or later Android 5.0 Lollipop Android 6.0 Marshmallow Supported browser: 2

3 Bluetooth Low Energy Technology Google Chrome Bluetooth Low Energy Technology Virtual Beacons Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) based beacon deployments are increasing in popularity as more customers are trying out proximity engagement use cases. However, BLE beacon deployment can have the following limitations: Operates on battery, leading to continuous maintenance challenges Requires intensive calibration and characterization, with site surveys Calculates location accuracy on smart devices reducing battery life Tends to be misplaced easily Involves manual intervention for movement and maintenance Virtual beacons (vbeacons) are designed for proximity-based messaging and indoor navigation. These beacons are virtual and offer seamless reconfiguration options remotely. The vbeacons help in accurate indoor positioning and location granularity in real time, informing your smart device that you are within range of a beacon. vbeacons offer more customer engagement and provide context-rich content based on user location. vbeacons help you in multiple ways, for example, share coupons and location-aware special offers in retail, provides indoor navigation, and to a whole lot of other applications. Cisco Virtual Beacon offers an amazing service experience that allows customers to add, move, remove virtual beacons with a simple click of a mouse from their account in the cloud. Virtual beacons provide the exact user engagement functionality that physical beacons do. Table 1 compares the benefits of vbeacons over physical beacons. Table 1: Benefits of Virtual Beacon Physical Beacon Battery operated Scaling physical beacons causes operational complexity Manual effort required to move or change the beacons Complex site surveys required for deployment Virtual Beacon Powered by Powered over Ethernet (PoE) Large number of virtual beacons can be managed at a time Easy site reconfiguration option available with the click of a button Machine learning facilitates better and quicker analytics, accuracy, and faster deployment 3

4 Cisco Beacon Point Cisco Beacon Point Cisco Beacon Center Cisco Beacon Point is a virtual BLE array with 16 steerable antenna elements that can create eight virtual beacons. You must connect Cisco Beacon Point Ethernet Port Eth0 to a PoE switch to power on the device. Cisco Beacon Point unit includes a BLE transmitter with 16 antenna in a sector geometry. This creates eight virtual beams that are essential to create virtual beacons. The smart device receives signals from multiple Cisco Beacon Points with different strengths. Cisco Beacon Points are deployed similar to any Wi-Fi access point for location service. The recommended density of Beacon Points is one per 2500 square feet. The recommended height for the Cisco Beacon Point is 13 ft (3.96 M). The Cisco CMX requires correct physical orientation, position, and height of Cisco Beacon Point for providing clients with indoor navigation, turn-by-turn guidance and proximity messaging for best indoor navigation experience. Cisco Beacon Points connect with Cisco Beacon Center over the internet using secure HTTPS protocol. Each Cisco Beacon Point has a unique IP address just like other enterprise-grade networking devices. Cisco Beacon Point should connect with the Cisco CMX cloud for initial registration purpose and for any subsequent beacon point updates. The port numbers 80 and 443 must be open for a Cisco Beacon Point to communicate with the Cisco CMX cloud. Cisco Beacon Point is a ceiling mounted Powered over Ethernet (PoE) enabled BLE device. The PoE capability of the Cisco Beacon Point offers a higher beacon rate that provides better location estimate for clients. The eight beam directional array delivers better location accuracy. Cisco Beacon Point also helps in location and machine learning algorithms. Cisco Beacon Point supports beaconing in Apple ibeacon, Google Eddystone and AltBeacon advertising formats. Cisco Beacon Center is a subscription software delivered over the cloud. It allows an administrator to create points of interests using virtual beacons at any desired location, configure proximity messages, and create zones for analytics and paths for indoor navigation. Cisco Beacon Center comprises the following tabs, that help you perform a variety of tasks to effectively manage Cisco Beacon Points and virtual beacons: Locations Enables you to manage clients, Cisco Beacon Points, vbeacons, zones, and paths. Metrics Enables you to compute the client metrics depending upon the floors and zones. Beacon Point Enables you to claim Cisco Beacon Points based on a Purchase Order or Claim code, and view information such as whether a Cisco Beacon Point is connected, disconnected, successfully claimed, or placed on a floor plan. Sites Enables you to create a new campus, new buildings, add buildings to a campus, and upload floor plans of a building. Diagnostics Enables you to view machine-learning information and beam density map. 4

5 Cisco Virtual Beacon Architecture Figure 1 provides an overview of the Cisco Beacon Center: Figure 1: Cisco Beacon Center Cisco Virtual Beacon Architecture The Cisco Virtual Beacon architecture is as shown in this figure: Figure 2: Cisco Virtual Beacon Architecture When a Cisco Beacon Point is deployed in a facility, any smart device that is enabled with bluetooth, that enters the Cisco Beacon Point coverage area, receives messages from that Cisco Beacon Point. Smart devices are capable of listening to beacons and invoking the mobile SDK app that is specific for the facility. For 5

6 Cisco Beacon Point Module example, Apple standards allow smart devices to respond and take appropriate action when a device is in close proximity to an ibeacon. The mobile SDK app receives the BLE beacon signals and gathers data from the mobile device. The app, in turn, sends the beacon details (UUID, Major, Minor, TX, and so on) that is received to the Cisco CMX Cloud location engine. The Cisco CMX Cloud system uses RSSI signals along with Cisco Beacon Point location information to calculate the actual location of the smart device. Cisco CMX Cloud also uses RSSI measurements and additional beacon information to calculate the location of the client. The location accuracy will be within of 1-3 m, 90 percent of the time. After computing the device location, Cisco CMX checks if there are any virtual beacons available in the vicinity of the user's location. If present, it sends an appropriate notification to the mobile SDK app on the smart device about the virtual beacons nearby (point of interests). Cisco Beacon Center has location details of the Cisco Beacon Point, virtual beacons, and the corresponding zones. Cisco Beacon Center pushes notifications associated with a virtual beacon when the smart device is in the vicinity of a virtual beacon. The smart device receives these notifications, for example, special promotions and personalized messages, on their SDK app this provides a best-in-class customer experience. The location of the smart device is also used in wayfinding by associating it with the paths defined in the Cisco Beacon Center. Cisco Beacon Point Module Cisco Beacon Point Module is a vble enabled module that provides exceptional location accuracy for turn-by-turn indoor navigation. Cisco Beacon Point Module uses the Cisco Virtual BLE beacon solution to deliver proximity messagaing and indoor navigation. Cisco Beacon Point Module servers as a virtual BLE module for Cisco Aironet Access Points 3800 series. Currently, Cisco Beacon Point Module is designed to work with Cisco Aironet Access Points 3802I and 3802E. Cisco Virtual BLE Beacon solution on Cisco CMX Cloud supports the Cisco Beacon Point Module. Cisco Beacon Point Module along with Cisco Virtual BLE Beacon solution is envisaged to create a standalone Beacon Point solution that will deliver virtual BLE solutions without the hassle of expensive site survey or deploying battery operated physical BLE beacons on site. Cisco Beacon Point Module seamlessly interact with the access point and commmunicate with the Cisco CMX cloud to deliver real-time, location-aware, personalized content to increase customer engagement. Use the Cisco Beacon Center, a subscription software delivered via the Cisco CMX cloud to manage the Cisco Beacon Point Module. 6