The Wi-Fi networks of today were architected more than a decade ago. That even predates the iPhone, which ushered in the era of mobility. These old Wi-Fi architectures aren’t ready to handle the vast number of mobile devices that want to connect to wireless networks today.
What’s more, these networks aren’t able to put any focus on what users experience when they are connected.
旧一代Wi-Fi网络是对想要提高客户在普遍存在移动设备上的业务的障碍。例如，餐馆和零售店希望通过在客户输入或步行时提供实时折扣或优惠券来捕捉客户的注意。这样做需要使用旧无线网络无法在规模支持的若干技术。
As we move into the era of digital engagement—one in which the mobile device becomes a concierge—a new generation of wireless network is needed.雾系统那a wireless networking company that was born in the era of mobile and cloud, has a solution to personalize a user’s experience over the network.
The three co-founders of Mist Systems have a strong Wi-Fi heritage, having worked on the previous two generations of Wi-Fi technologies and architectures. And now, by converging Wi-Fi and蓝牙低能量(BLE), the Mist executives say they are ushering in a new generation of wireless network. I recently spoke to Sujai Hajela, Mist Systems co-founder and CEO, to learn more.
“我们专注于融合Wi-Fi和BLE，为机场的乘客，医院，零售店，工作场所的员工，酒店或游乐园的客人的员工提供巨大的移动经验。列表继续，然后，“哈杰拉说。“客户订婚已成为许多企业的关键口头禅。他们正试图了解或利用移动设备与进入其企业或企业的人员互动。我们的使命是帮助他们提供个性化的体验。“
他的个性化体验他的意思是什么？Hajela提供了款待行业用例。
“让我们说我走进酒店，”哈杰拉说。“一旦我走进大厅，酒店的IT集团就会充分考虑我在网络上的历史。除此之外，如果酒店有移动应用程序，我已经安装在我的智能手机上，雾系统唤醒了移动应用程序。让我们说我想去最近的餐厅。该应用程序可以指导我在那里，沿途，酒店可以开始为我提供专注的数字优惠券，并在餐厅为我提供预订。酒店可以追踪我是否使用其促销活动，因此它可以在下次调整其优惠。“
苦苦挣扎的实体零售商店to get foot traffic would love to be able to offer extremely personalized experiences like this. As people grow more dependent on their mobile devices for all types of services, they will come to expect more than just an in-store Wi-Fi connection where they can comparison shop and buy from another retailer.
BLE a key element of Mist’s wireless network
Mist Systems无线解决方案的一个关键元件是BLE，它来自蓝牙通信标准。
“一个发射器看起来像一个小型电池运行的冰球，它会向您的手机发送蓝牙啁啾或消息，”Hajela解释说。“当你走过这些”曲棍球冰球之一，那些消息进入你的手机的蓝牙应用程序。如果您有一个对应于零售商的广告（例如AD）的应用程序，我们的系统将打开应用程序并在手机上显示该消息。“
BLE became popular when Apple endorsed it with iBeacon and Google endorsed it with Eddystone. Today, mobile operating systems, including iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry, as well as macOS, Linux, Windows 8 and Windows 10, natively support BLE—making practically every mobile device a digital on-ramp that an enterprise can use to engage with someone digitally over the device.
Rather than using physical versions of the Bluetooth “hockey pucks,” which have to be placed every three or four meters to create an effective grid, Mist has virtualized the BLE transmitters in its network.
“You don’t put one physical beacon in the network to enable that experience,” according to Hajela. “It is all virtualized, and that is a patented technology we came out with on top of Wi-Fi plus BLE converged network.”
雾网络建筑由AI提供支持
The Mist Systems networking architecture is powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
“We collect the control and management information from the device as someone connects onto one of our Wi-Fi networks. We do not collect any user-specific information,” Hajela said. “Next we analyze that information by our machine learning techniques, and we are learning the experience of users getting on a wireless network. Then through artificial intelligence, we gain an understanding of what’s going on and can optimize the Wi-Fi connectivity and location accuracy. We can get one to three meters of location accuracy without putting a single physical beacon within the network.”
薄雾提供Wi-Fi堆栈和BLE堆栈。用户/客人只需连接到客户Wi-Fi网络，就像他们今天一样，这是一个接触点。下一级更加个性化的参与，通常通过BLE和业务提供的应用程序完成。一如既往，最终用户将选择才能获得该应用程序。当人们走进业务时，雾系统唤醒了应用程序能够与用户交互。
Mist can also produce heat maps based on the Wi-Fi or BLE signals within a business’ network. For example, an airport network can provide information to an administrator that an excessive number of people are gathering at the Customs line, which could indicate the need to open more lanes. A retail store can sense when lots of customers are gathered in one department so that additional sales reps can be dispatched to handle the crowd. Heat maps can also show trends over time, such as the busiest times of the day at the Customs and Immigration counters or how long people dwell at a checkout counter.
总的来说，雾联系统有三个产品。第一个是Wi-Fi堆栈，配有SLA并提供完全可见的网络。第二个是使用虚拟BLE的位置服务。第三个产品是分析的热量图。他们一起以非常个性化的方式实现数字客户参与。