Ekahau Refines Wi-Fi RTLS Performance With New Location Beacon

    Ekahau's Patented Wi-Fi Methodologies Now Exceed Performance Criteria
    Traditionally Only Available With Expensive Proprietary Technologies

    RESTON, VA, March 26 /CNW/ - Ekahau Inc., the leading provider of
Wi-Fi-based Real Time Location Systems (RTLS), announced that it will make
available a family of a small mobile battery-powered transmitters, called
Ekahau location beacons, to further increase the location accuracy of its
award-winning Wi-Fi RTLS solution. These beacons are designed to enhance
system performance in areas that have poor Wi-Fi coverage but where location
accuracy is mission critical. Ekahau will be demonstrating its location beacon
capabilities during the HIMSS 2009 Annual Conference and Exhibition in
Chicago, April 4-8, 2009 (Booth 4820).
    (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081014/324879-a )
    Ekahau is the recognized performance leader in the RTLS market with
location algorithms that are capable of pinpointing tagged objects using
existing enterprise-grade Wi-Fi networks. But in areas where there is marginal
or poor wireless coverage, Ekahau location beacons can help improve location
accuracy to levels previously available with expensive, proprietary systems
not based on standard Wi-Fi technology. For a typical hospital environment,
Ekahau location beacons can guarantee bed- and room-level accuracy in areas
with poor Wi-Fi coverage, without the need to install additional Wi-Fi access
points.
    With deployment of these location beacons, the Ekahau RTLS can support a
variety of different location tracking requirements, such as:

    -  Campuswide tracking using Ekahau's standard RTLS capabilities over the
       customer's existing Wi-Fi network with the Wi-Fi industry's best
       accuracy.
    -  Room-level location using an enterprise-grade Wi-Fi network or using
       Ekahau location beacons in areas of poor Wi-Fi coverage.
    -  Bed- or bay-level accuracy, such as in hospital emergency rooms or
       recovery rooms in operating suites where many beds may be only
       separated by curtains. In these scenarios the system leverages both
       the customer's Wi-Fi network and Ekahau location beacons.

    Ekahau Wi-Fi tags recognize these location beacon signals and transmit
the signal data to the RTLS server, which calculates the precise location of
the Ekahau tags. The location beacons are typically mounted on a wall. Because
they do not require any cabling, the location beacons can be moved around as
needed to improve accuracy for a period of time or installed permanently in
specific locations.
    "Based on evaluations of several systems on the market, we chose to work
with Ekahau because its high performance Wi-Fi RTLS system was incredibly easy
to install and operate," said Gerhard Kschwendt, senior director for ISM
Siemens Medical Solutions, USA. "Ekahau has done it right again. As other
systems keep adding more proprietary infrastructure to their offerings, Ekahau
has stayed true to its vision of providing high-performance solutions over
standard Wi-Fi networks."
    Competing enterprise-class location tracking systems include ones using
ultra-wideband, active RFID, ultrasound, ZigBee and other RF-based systems.
These alternatives require installation of proprietary and single-purpose
antennas, and dedicated staff to deploy, manage and maintain. Some of these
technologies such as ZigBee and active RFID, are problematic in certain
scenarios because they can introduce possible interference with Wi-Fi networks
and critical patient care equipment. For example, 125 kHz chokepoints have
been banned by many hospitals around the world because they can interfere with
clinical equipment in hospitals and ZigBee (or IEEE 802.15.4) can seriously
impact a customer's existing Wi-Fi network that is used for primary voice and
data communications.
    "Wi-Fi RTLS continues to dominate the market," said Pauli Misikangas,
Ekahau's CTO. "Our innovative technological advances continue to strengthen
our performance leadership, giving our customers accuracy levels that beat
most proprietary systems and providing 100 percent service coverage across the
enterprise. As the worldwide investment in Wi-Fi technology increases, we are
able to leverage industrywide economies of scale not available to users of
proprietary systems."
    The Ekahau RTLS solution is designed to work over any generation or brand
of Wi-Fi network. It is supported and endorsed by all major Wi-Fi vendors and
has been certified with approximately 30 of the leading Wi-Fi network and
device companies worldwide. In a study published in IEEE Computer Society's IT
Professional magazine, Berlin Institute of Technology researchers ranked
Ekahau as the best performing Wi-Fi RTLS solution on the market for the
clinical healthcare use.
    The location beacons are now available through Ekahau and its partners
worldwide at a price of approximately $50 a piece.

    About Ekahau Inc.

    Ekahau Inc. is the industry leader in providing Wi-Fi-based RTLS
solutions. Ekahau's RTLS technology is routinely recognized for its superior
performance in customer benchmarking and competitive evaluations of
Wi-Fi-based location tracking solutions. Ekahau's customers, including several
Fortune 500 companies worldwide, are realizing the benefits of Wi-Fi based
location services and innovative Wi-Fi network planning and optimization
tools. Ekahau's solutions are being used in more than 150 hospitals around the
world, as well as by manufacturers, mining/oil/gas companies, government
agencies and the military. Ekahau partners include wireless software
developers, leading system integrators and international OEM partners, who
develop and market wireless enterprise applications. Ekahau is a U.S. based
corporation, with offices in Saratoga, Calif.; Reston, Va.; Helsinki, Finland;
and Hong Kong, China. For more information about Ekahau, please visit at
http://www.ekahau.com.

    (c) Copyright 2009, Ekahau, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

    Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081014/324879-a

For further information: U.S. Media Contact: Juliet Travis, Rocket
Science PR, for Ekahau, (415) 464-8110 x 215, juliet@rocketscience.com; Europe
Media Contact: Annina Pierson, Marketing Manager, Ekahau, +358-20-743-5910,
annina.pierson@ekahau.com