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- 1. And in This Corner . Active RFID vs. WiFi for Indoor Positioning Systems Michael K. Dempsey Chief Technology Officer Mike.Dempsey@Radianse.com (978) 337-0864 Agenda What is Indoor Positioning System (IPS)? How does IPS work? What are some important parameters of IPS? How do these parameters compare between Active RFID and WiFi? What is an Indoor Positioning System? Indoor Positioning Solutions (IPS) are analogous to GPS in an indoor space These can be based on: Active RFID Transmitters WiFi Transmitters Infrared Transmitters Ultrasonic Sound Waves Other types of Radio Transmitters 1
- 2. The Value of IPS IPS are valuable and allow you to: Reduce loss Improve workflow Improve patient safety Improve regulatory compliance Gather better utilization data Manage rental equipment more effectively Make IT systems aware of location Typical IPS System ID-tag Receiver or AP Power Injector ------------ ------------ Network Switch Hospital LAN ------------ ------------ Server Typical Information Flow Web Browser Other Systems Location Software 2
- 3. What are Some Important Specifications for any IPS? Accuracy Precision Tag Size Tag Battery Life Support and Maintenance Risk Ease of Installation Standards Compliance & Integration with other systems Accuracy of WiFi IPS WiFi systems determine location based on either Signal Fingerprinting or triangulation Both methods suffer from changes to the radio environment Fingerprinting requires frequent relearning Triangulation requires precise time synchronization There is no peer reviewed data documenting the accuracy of 802.11 based systems Accuracy of Active RFID IPS These systems use various techniques (reception range limitation, line-of-site communications, multilateration, etc) to improve accuracy Active RFID systems typically have much less floor hopping than 802.11 based IPS Peer reviewed data supports this 3
- 4. Precision Active RFID & 802.11 systems claim 1 3 M Very dependent on the number of AP s or receivers Again, independently published data is crucial for determining precision claims Match the level of precision that you need to that provided by the system. Tag Size (inches) Radianse: 2.0 x 1.2 x 0.8 RF Code: 2.4 x 1.2 x 0.4 Pango: 3.5 x 2.0 x 1.0 AeroScout: 2.4 x 1.6 x 0.7 Ekahau: 1.9 x 2.2 x 0.9 Tag Battery Life Life Update Battery Rate Cost Radianse 2 yrs 10 sec 46¢ RF Code 5 yrs 12 sec 35¢ Pango 1 day 10 sec unknown AeroScout 1.3 yr 10 sec $3.00 minimum Ekahau 1 day 10 sec recharge 4
- 5. Tag EMI Issues 802.11 tags must, by definition, be 802.11 compliant This high output power causes The inability to be used on patients Short battery life Possible EMI issues Radianse & Pango Ekahau Aero- RF Code Scout Tag Power* (mW) 0.003 10 25 79 * As reported on the FCC website Ease of Maintenance With 802.11 systems, more AP s mean more channel management issues Some 802.11 asset tags require an IP address If the radio environment changes, the 802.11 system needs to relearn Non 802.11 receivers are install and forget and are more secure Ease of Installation To achieve the specified precision a high density of AP s are required in 802.11 based systems this is not free To get room-level accuracy we needed to increase the number of AP s from 3 to 8. Initially 3 AP s served all of our data needs for the ED, but then we moved to voice over IP and needed to increase that to 5. When we did the survey with Pango we needed to bring the total up to 8. John Powers, Chief Administrative Information Officer, CareGroup; RFID in Healthcare, October 2004 802.11 and Active RFID solutions both use standard wired and wireless networks 5
- 6. Standards Compliance and/or Integration with Other Systems The key here is that any IPS must be open and easily integrate to other IT systems No IEEE standard for Active RFID Is an ANSI standard 802.11 based IPS conform to the IEEE 802.11 standard at the radio layer; some comply with ANSI at the data layer Active RFID systems typically comply with ANSI standard at the data layer Bottom Line: 802.11 vs RFID Active RFID for IPS is Less expensive More precise More accurate Lower risk to install and maintain Integrates better Has lower ongoing costs This is due to the use of special readers; the cost to install these is low and decreasing with wireless and other options 802.11 Competitive Summary A-RFID WiFi 1 WiFi 2 WiFi 3 $200/yr for 3 Tag Price $10 & $30 $65 $85 years Price/ Licensed bed $1.26K $5K $2.5K ? over 5 Years 2 years Battery Life 10,000 pings 1 day 1.3 yrs 6.3M pings 1 2 M with 3 4 M with 3 4 M with 3 4 M with Accuracy no hopping floor hopping floor hopping floor hopping People Track Yes No No No 1 x 1.7 and Tag Size ~ 2 x 3.5 2x2 1.5 x 2.5 2 x 2.7 Scaleability 25,000 tags 1000 ? 1000 ? 1000 ? 6