By Jason Claybrook July 13, 2020 Case Studies

As the dawn of the smart city rapidly approaches, the need for reliable and cost-effective connectivity solutions within urban settings has steadily grown. Add to this scenario a marked increase in internet usage that now sees more people and devices using greater amounts of data than ever before, and a unique problem presents itself: how can a smart city provide its residents with widespread Wi-Fi coverage while keeping labor and infrastructure costs under control?
In December of 2019, INTECH GM Nando Ateho found himself considering this very question. He’d been tasked with deploying a wireless network for a five-day outdoor event held on-site at an up-and-coming smart city development in Utah known as Desert Color. The wireless solution required for this event needed to offer three things: seamless connectivity across a large geographic area, ease-of-configuration for a limited labor force, and overall cost-effectiveness.

The solution he found was Apogee by Aura Wireless.

Background

With construction on its first phase of homes having commenced at the beginning of 2019, Desert Color is well into its first year of development. Touting itself as a “master-planned community built around connectivity, community, and sustainability,” Desert Color is already proving to be one of Utah’s premier smart communities.

With an expected development timeline of 20-or-so years, sights are set high for this small city. Among its future plans are resorts, residential areas, shopping centers, recreational zones, parks, and other community centers like office buildings, schools, and churches. Its growth goals are largely geared toward attracting forward-thinking, well-to-do professionals who value an active lifestyle, connecting with the outdoors, and living a futuristic quality-of-life supported by all the amenities IoT-based living can offer.

But in order to make this vision a reality, developers had to first begin attracting prospects and selling homes. Slated for early 2020, the community’s first-ever Parade of Homes event was prepared to do just that.

The Problem

In order to showcase the Desert Color community to prospective home buyers, community planners knew it had to live up to some high expectations. The Parade of Homes event was planned with two simultaneous goals in mind: highlighting its allure as a city rich in beauty, style, and community; and showcasing its technical capabilities as a smart city. As such, Brook Cole of Clyde Development knew he needed to find a wireless network solution that would help Desert Color live up to its budding reputation.

Meant to span five days and cover a geographic area of over 15 acres, the event required a well-planned and strategic wireless infrastructure. Visitors would be moving across the area on foot and in vehicles; they’d need to be able to move outdoors and into tents and even inside buildings with ease. While the natural scenery and unique architecture of the city’s homes are a major selling point, the word “connectivity” is plainly stated within the community’s mission statement. Weak coverage and poor performance were simply not an option.

However, deploying a robust, large-scale Wi-Fi network is difficult and expensive. Covering a 15-acre swath of land typically requires dozens of access points, exponentially increasing hardware costs. Additionally, these large networks require a great deal of hands-on configuration by a team of technicians, which drastically increases labor costs. The usual conclusion is that networks such as these are just not worth it.

But what if there were a solution that could change all that?

The Solution

Once his network solutions options were assessed, Ateho eventually turned to Apogee’s software-defined antennae platform as the cornerstone of his deployment. After taking into consideration Desert Color’s specific needs and requirements, Aura’s team assisted with RF planning by bestowing thoughtful and timely planning and cooperation which would help lay the framework for the upcoming event.

During installation and throughout the Parade of Homes, only two Apogee-equipped access points were required to provide thorough coverage to the 15-acre area. What’s more, Apogee Manager Cloud gave INTECH CTO Leonard Jenkins the ability to not only remotely configure the network, but also be able to remotely manage the network. This meant that instead of dispatching multiple technicians to adjust multiple access points as needed over the course of several days, one technician was able to manage only two Apogee access points from one remote location.

Furthermore, Apogee was able to provide reliable infrastructure support for IoT devices within the area. Because IoT devices are low-powered and, oftentimes, battery-powered, properly connecting them to networks can be challenging. A robust signal – particularly on the return link from the IoT device to the AP – reduces power drain and extends the life of the device, in addition to improving connectivity. Apogee’s asymmetrical gain was ideally suited to overcome these challenges.

From installation and throughout deployment, Jenkins became more and more convinced that Apogee was a wireless solution unlike any other, applauding the system’s ease-of-use, as well as the range and strength of its signal. While providing seamless large-area Wi-Fi coverage across a large span of area can be an insurmountable challenge, Apogee and Apogee Manager Cloud helped provide a reliable network solution for the hundreds of attendees for the Parade of Homes event.

In addition to the remote configuration and optimization that Apogee provides, Jenkins was also impressed with the antenna’s ability to propagate the 5GHz band over very large areas. Typically, the 5GHz band was only utilized for point-to-point; with Apogee, Jenkins documented that 5GHz could be used alongside the 2.4GHz band for point-to-multipoint, thus doubling the number of usable channels and truly delivering two non-interfering networks side-by-side.

But ultimately, it was its long-term cost-effectiveness that brought its benefits full-circle. Ateho’s verdict?  That a better-quality solution with a more efficient signal and easier-to-manage antenna software equals a greater, long-term value.

He plans to deploy Apogee in future projects.

By Taj Manku, CEO | June 14, 2020

Discovering new applications for existing technologies is the definition of innovation. It’s an exciting thing to be a part of because it opens the door to new ways of improving our quality of life, but we recognize it also comes with responsibility.

Here at Cognitive Systems, we’ve developed a solution called WiFi Motion that uses existing WiFi signals in the home to enable motion detection. Also referred to as WiFi Sensing, this technology already has numerous applications for service providers within the security, health care, enterprise and smart home markets. WiFi Motion’s capabilities are sure to expand as we work with partners and others in the space to uncover even more uses, but not without some necessary guardrails in place.

The need for a more complete set of standards

Current possibilities aside, WiFi Sensing technology won’t reach its full potential unless stakeholders work together to implement standards around its development. While there are currently adequate standards in place that cover the core functions of WiFi Motion, a more robust set is required to achieve new and more complex use cases. These standards will help others work with existing applications and also create new ones, while ensuring consistency across various platforms.

In the early stages of working on WiFi Motion, we found ourselves explaining WiFi Sensing to each new chip vendor we worked with. This simply wasn’t efficient or sustainable. Going forward, we need a universally recognized industry definition, and a defined set of API to be used as a guideline for anyone creating chips.

Finding the right partners to move WiFi Sensing forward

As one of the first companies to develop a commercially-viable solution using WiFi Sensing, we became aware of our responsibility to help shape the development of the wider technology. To make this happen, we knew we had to align ourselves with others working in the space. There is a lot of room for development, and even competition, in this space. It’s important that we all work together to realize the full potential of WiFi Sensing technology.

We identified the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) as an ideal partner to help raise awareness about WiFi Sensing, while also ensuring it is being explained accurately and consistently throughout the industry. The WBA’s mission is to enable collaboration among service providers, technology companies and organizations who want to drive seamless, interoperable service experiences via WiFi. This made them a natural fit.

Our next step was to establish a working group within the WBA. The NextGen Work Group is the first of its kind and works toward introducing and fostering the adoption of new WiFi applications. Part of the group’s work so far has included publishing the Wi-Fi Sensing Whitepaper, which outlines use cases and requirements for the technology to be utilized in home and enterprise environments. A goal of the whitepaper is to help other companies identify business opportunities or simply grow their revenue by enhancing their current offerings with WiFi Sensing. It also identifies gaps that need to be addressed to fully realize the potential of the technology in the broader industry.

Looking forward to a bright future

We’re proud to say that we’ve gotten the ball rolling on establishing a robust set of standards that will help WiFi Sensing move forward. Cognitive Systems senior engineer Chris Beg has been an integral player in aligning with the WBA, starting the NextGen Work Group and publishing the whitepaper. Last fall Chris presented to the Wireless Next Generation Standing Committee on the future of WiFi Sensing for service providers. Up next, Chris continues the conversation with key players by presenting at this summer’s Wireless Global Congress virtual event.

Ultimately, we’re looking to engage the software community and start coming together in an open source forum to explore what is possible. By strengthening the WiFi industry as a whole, we can all achieve great things together.

What’s New: Today Intel recognized the outstanding achievements of 30 partners with the distinction of Partner of the Year at its Intel Partner Connect 2020 virtual conference. The Partner of the Year awards honor Intel partners demonstrating excellence in technology innovation, go-to-market strategizing, sales growth and marketing.

“We appreciate each of our partners for their continued collaboration to bring new technologies to life for our customers. The shared results from 2019 demonstrate our strong partnerships and collective mission to bring innovative solutions to businesses and organizations across the world.”
– Greg Ernst, Intel vice president in the Sales and Marketing Group and general manager of U.S. Sales

Why It’s Important: The title of Partner of the Year is awarded to companies achieving the highest standards of design, development, integration and technology deployment to accelerate innovation, growth and go-to-market strategies. They represent great examples of what’s possible when we, as an ecosystem, work together.

Partner Program Winners:

Global Innovation

• Accenture – Global Innovation Partner – Globally deploying innovative solutions across artificial intelligence (AI), analytics, blockchain and device-as-a-service leveraging Intel technologies: Intel® OpenVINO™, Intel® Arria® 10 FPGA, Intel® Movidius™ Myriad™ X VPU, Intel® Connected Logistics platform and the Intel vPro® platform.

LOEM

• AIS – Growth – Continuously grew integration of Intel® NUC product to enhance video collaboration solutions in enterprise and education.
• Colfax International – Go-to-Market – For successfully deploying Intel® Optane™ persistent memory DIMMS at launch and strategizing a cohesive pricing model.
• Crystal Group – Growth – Delivered innovative, ruggedized systems tailored to specific customer needs for oil and gas, and power substation/micro grid market-ready solutions for Intel’s common substation platform.
• Eluktronics – Innovation – Leading channel whitebook GTM strategy with SPG and executing TTM launch of Queen’s County, selling 1.2ku in first quarter.
• IBuyPower – Go-to-Market – Set its sights on TAM expansion with Intel technology through a bold, creative and unique partnership with Toyota Racing Development. With this program, it unveiled a state-of-the-art gaming and training zone at Toyota Performance Center, remastered its Pro Series of workstation PCs for professionals, launched a series of TRD-approved systems for gamers, and broadcasted a video series designed to award-winning college students with gaming room makeovers, all with Intel branding and powered by Intel-based PCs.
• Penguin Computing – Innovation – An innovative Linux solution for high-performance computing on-premise and in the cloud with Penguin Computing professional and managed services.
• Razer – Growth – Razer saw exceptional growth in 2019, in part by bringing the latest Intel technologies to market, including Intel® Core™ i7 processors, Intel® Iris® Plus graphics, Thunderbolt™ 3 and Wi-Fi 6, to deliver high-performance thin-and-light gaming laptops.
• Simply NUC – Go-to-Market – Dedicated to expanding the use cases of mini PCs into new growth segments such as digital signage, academic collaboration and AI. Simply NUC is your one-stop shop for systems, solutions and accessories.
• Vast Data – Innovation – For close collaboration and partnership in creating Intel Optane technology-based storage solutions for new applications, such as analytics and AI, machine learning and deep learning. Uniquely integrated key Intel technologies to simplify the data center stack, eliminate storage complexity and tiers, and enable all-flash performance with archive economics.

National

• CDW – Growth – Expanding Intel client, data center, storage and networking infrastructure solutions across over 150 countries.
• Connection – Go-to-Market – For their dedication to selling devices consistently across SMB, public sector and enterprise segments.
• Insight – Innovation – For simplifying complex solutions in emerging technologies like the internet of Things (IoT) and machine learning – including the Connected Platform for Detection and Prevention of the spread of viruses – to accelerate our clients’ time to value, drive efficiency in their workplaces and create positive customer experiences through partnerships and solution aggregation at scale.
• Logicalis – Go-to-Market – Intel pre-validated, and pre-integrated IoT solutions across markets, such as asset management in healthcare, machine vision in industrial, and smart city applications.
• Pivot – Go-to-Market – Edge secure connectivity, computing and collaboration solutions that continue to advance and scale Smart Edge’s software. Pivot signed a three-year preferred partnership agreement with Intel to continue investing in and drive the Intel® Smart Edge/Edge solution (branded Pivot Intelligent Edge) to market and support its future growth. Pivot has integrated Smart Edge to be a foundational component of Pivot’s Intelligent Edge Solution and Services that provide best-in-class secure connectivity across multiple wireless protocols (CBRS, LTE, Wifi, Lora, Zigbee, etc.).
• Presidio – Growth – Deployed Intel-based solutions around HCI, SDS and Hybrid Cloud across its middle market, enterprise and government clients.
• SHI International Corp. – Innovation – Leads the way with its cutting-edge Zero Touch, which streamlines configuration, deployment and management of Intel processor-based Win 10 client devices.
• World Wide Technology – Growth – Designed, built, and deployed transformational solutions for multicloud, AI/analytics, IoT and 5G, supporting our largest enterprise, public sector, and service provider customers.
• Zones – Innovation – For its leadership in solution development and deployment of the Intel Unite®

ISA

• BCM – Highest IOT Growth at Associate/Affiliate Level – Provided medical equipment OEMs with a viable IoT data collection and aggregation device using Intel Core technology. Understands multiple vertical markets and embedded life cycle management, and reduces time to market with a quality product.
• Crestron – Most Engaged Co-Marketing – The Creston Collaboration solution is an Intel® IoT Market Ready Solution built on Intel technologies (Intel Core i7, Movidius and Intel Arria FPGA). Creston engaged in a multifaceted Intel IoT Solutions Alliance co-marketing campaign (event, collateral, demos, digital), insight.tech content marketing platform, and the Intel® Solutions Marketplace to develop leads, accelerate its business and drive revenue and deployments.
• Dell OEM – Largest IoT Co-sell Partner +Biggest IOT Growth Partner – Dell Technologies Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Embedded & Edge Solutions delivers customized infrastructure, services and a secure supply chain designed for your vision and business goals – all from one trusted, sustainable and secure vendor. Dell OEM offers solutions for IoT, communications, medical, retail and more than 40 additional verticals.
• Noodle.ai – Most impactful MRS – Noodle.ai is a mature startup software company with deep heritage and expertise of AI/ML analytics for factory/industrial environments. With the support from Intel and Dell, Noodle.ai will continue to pioneer the Smart Factories initiative, as part of the Industry 4.0 rollout.

Distributor

• Synnex Corporation – Data Center Group Distributor of the Year – Grew its overall data center business with a companywide focus on growing this segment, which resulted in overall data center growth, and Intel adjacencies and Intel® Data Center Blocks.
• Ingram Micro – Client Computing Group Distributor of the Year – Grew its client computing business through a sales and marketing strategy focused on growth areas, like solutions-based on Intel NUC products.
• Arrow – Internet of Things Group Distributor of the Year – Drove an overall IoT silicon, systems, solution strategy that led to expanding its overall business and evolving its IoT go-to-market strategy.
• ASI – Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group Distributor of the Year – Exceptional growth year-over-year through a very focused effort across the entire company.
• Tech Data – Branded Systems Distributor of the Year – Strong growth results on both end-point products and data center through a variety of companywide initiatives.
• Tech Data – Partner Enablement Distributor of the Year – Delivered innovative solutions to help its Intel partners grow their Intel business through Tech Data’s Propel ITP program.
• Computech International – Channel Innovation Award – Brought Intel nonvolatile memory solutions to new markets, expanding Intel’s channel presence and customer base.

More Context: Intel’s Partner Program Page | Intel Announces 2020 Americas Partner of the Year Awards

The Small Print: Intel technologies’ features and benefits depend on system configuration and may require enabled hardware, software or service activation. Performance varies depending on system configuration. No product or component can be absolutely secure. Check with your system manufacturer or retailer or learn more at intel.com.

Cost reduction scenarios described are intended as examples of how a given Intel-based product, in the specified circumstances and configurations, may affect future costs and provide cost savings. Circumstances will vary. Intel does not guarantee any costs or cost reduction.

Software and workloads used in performance tests may have been optimized for performance only on Intel microprocessors.

Performance tests, such as SYSmark and MobileMark, are measured using specific computer systems, components, software, operations and functions. Any change to any of those factors may cause the results to vary. You should consult other information and performance tests to assist you in fully evaluating your contemplated purchases, including the performance of that product when combined with other products. For more complete information visit www.intel.com/benchmarks.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., May 19, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — GoZone WiFi, a leading U.S.-based WiFi analytics and marketing SaaS company, has unveiled a new product called Touchless Menu™ to help restaurants adapt to safety and health concerns around the COVID-19 pandemic.

Touchless Menu creates a contactless ordering experience during dine-in service. Guests access the restaurant’s food and beverage menu by connecting to a special WiFi network, which pushes the digital menu to the guest’s smartphone, tablet, laptop or other WiFi-enabled device.

See How Touchless Menu Works

“Our team developed Touchless Menu after hearing from restaurant owners and operators across the country who are struggling to navigate a safe reopening,” said Todd Myers, GoZone WiFi CEO. “The Touchless Menu gives restaurants an opportunity to reassure patrons that they’re taking actions to reduce the spread of COVID-19.”

The Touchless Menu is safer than sanitizing reusable menus, which require cleaning by staff members between uses. It also provides significant cost savings over printed single-use menus, while being environmentally conscious.

“Guests need to feel safe and comfortable in coming back to our restaurants,” said Mark Ferguson, who is using Touchless Menu at his restaurant, Ferg’s Sports Bar in St. Petersburg, Florida. “Many of my guests feel more comfortable using their personal devices rather than touching a physical menu. Touchless Menu encourages a comfortable experience.”

While other digital menu solutions are available, they are expensive to install and maintain, or they’re clunky offerings that required guests to follow complicated instructions. Touchless Menu, by comparison, is affordable and it’s the easiest digital menu to use.

Restaurant operators quickly upload their current menu to a drag-and-drop menu editor with pre-built menu templates. The Touchless Menu works by simply plugging in a pre-configured router box to a restaurant’s existing Internet router to set up guest WiFi access. Once set up, guests can instantly view the menu on their personal WiFi-enabled devices inside the restaurant.

The Touchless Menu includes a drag-and-drop menu editor, pre-built menu templates and a router box. GoZone is offering one-time complimentary design services to help restaurants quickly return to operation.

Learn more about GoZone WiFi’s Touchless Menu here. See release on PRNewswire here.

AdaptivMIMO technology provides flexible configurations for fast 6 GHz adoption

PHOENIX, Ariz. – Apr. 21, 2020 – ON Semiconductor (Nasdaq: ON), driving energy efficient innovations, announced sampling of its new QCS-AX2 chipset family that supports the 6GHz spectrum band based on the enhanced Wi-Fi 6E standard. Designed with a high performance, flexible architecture to maximize usage of the 6GHz band, the new product family is optimized for high-throughput Wi-Fi applications, such as access points, gateways, and mesh networking solutions for dense environments and underserved areas.

The QCS-AX2 series is built on an integrated baseband and RF (radio frequency) architecture that supports key Wi-Fi 6E features, such as orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA), advanced MU-MIMO (Multi-User, Multi-Input, Multi-Output), and 160MHz channel support for faster speeds, and SmartScan channel selection for maximum band utilization. The new product portfolio will include the following:

• QCS-AX2-A12: tri-band (6GHz/5GHz/2.4GHz) with AdaptivMIMO technology supports flexible 8×8 or 4×4 configurations
• QCS-AX2-T12: tri-band concurrent 4×4 operation for high performance, cost-effective router solutions
• QCS-AX2-T8: tri-band concurrent 8-stream configurations for mesh nodes and mainstream access points

As the Federal Communications Commission anticipates the opening of the 6GHz band in the United States later this year, up to 1,200 MHz of newly available spectrum will be designated for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use. With almost 5 times of spectrum more than the current 2.4 GHz and 5GHz bands combined, the 6GHz band is accelerating the development of next generation Wi-Fi 6 applications. While the 6GHz client ecosystem takes time to build out, Wi-Fi infrastructure devices, such as gateways, routers, and access points will need to continue to support existing dual band (2.4GHz/5GHz) clients; infrastructure applications such as 6GHz backhaul between gateways and mesh nodes will lead deployments.

ON Semiconductor’s Wi-Fi 6E solutions are designed to accommodate the transition to the 6GHz band with AdaptivMIMO technology while addressing mainstream 6GHz applications. A Wi-Fi 6E infrastructure device with AdaptivMIMO allows the network to operate in the 5GHz or 6GHz band depending on the clients present in a subscriber’s home network to maximize performance, coverage, and utilization. The QCS-AX2 series provides the Wi-Fi performance and connectivity in congested environments to multiple devices that applications demand.

“We are excited about the tremendous opportunities that Wi-Fi 6E opens for the industry. We are in the forefront of building Wi-Fi 6E platforms that enable even better speed, efficiency and performance for the Home, Enterprise, Automotive and IoT segments,” said Irvind Ghai, Vice President of Marketing, Quantenna Connectivity Solutions at ON Semiconductor. “ON Semiconductor is dedicated to innovation in Wi-Fi technology, and will continue to leverage its connectivity excellence to provide end-to-end solutions that accelerate key Wi-Fi 6E ecosystems.”

“Our new generation of QCS-AX2 with AdaptivMIMO allows OEMs fast time-to-market with optimized performance across the 3 bands. As Wi-Fi 6E infrastructure proliferates, it will seed the 6GHz ecosystems. Client devices will also benefit from improved efficiency, lower latency and jitter, and less interference, providing better user experience across applications and environments,” said Simon Duxbury, General Manager & Vice President, Quantenna Connectivity Solutions, ON Semiconductor.

ON Semiconductor is now sampling the QCS-AX2 solutions to customers.

About ON Semiconductor
ON Semiconductor (Nasdaq: ON) is driving energy efficient innovations, empowering customers to reduce global energy use. The company is a leading supplier of semiconductor-based solutions, offering a comprehensive portfolio of energy efficient power management, analog, sensors, logic, timing, connectivity, discrete, SoC and custom devices. The company’s products help engineers solve their unique design challenges in automotive, communications, computing, consumer, industrial, medical, aerospace and defense applications. ON Semiconductor operates a responsive, reliable, world-class supply chain and quality program, a robust compliance and ethics program, and a network of manufacturing facilities, sales offices and design centers in key markets throughout North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific regions. For more information, visit https://www.onsemi.com.