The Smart City Living Lab Wi-SUN Challenge is a dynamic platform that aims to support hardware innovators, start-ups, and academic institutions in developing workable prototypes utilizing the Wi-SUN RF mesh. The challenge encourages them all to harness the potential of the Wi-SUN network. By doing so, they contribute to smarter cities, efficient utilities, and innovative healthcare solutions. With over three hundred members across forty-six countries, the Wi-SUN Alliance drives interoperability and standardization in IoT applications. This challenge aligns with this greater vision.

The thematic areas eligible for the scheme covered domains such as smart cities, energy, water utilities, healthcare, smart parking, metering, smart streetlighting, and more. Focus areas included edge intelligence, predictive maintenance, battery-powered smart utility solutions, etc. We received an overwhelming number of submissions, a total of 266 which consisted of a diverse pool – students, researchers, working professionals, entrepreneurs, and startups—all eager to tackle real-world problems using Wi-SUN technologies. All the teams provided not only their ideas but also detailed plans for executing their projects including budgetary and component requirements.

A thorough screening process was undertaken by our esteemed judge panel – Dr. Aftab Hussain, Mrs. Anuradha Vattem – Lead Architect from IIITH, Venkatesh Narasimhan, and Srinivasa Dukkipati from Silicon Labs, which took place in three stages, the first based on the relevance to the smart city applications, the second based on their understanding on sensors and cloud connectivity, and the final round, which was an online interview round designed to check their capability to ready their concept in the stipulated amount of time, their experience with IoT applications and their understanding on Wi-SUN.

Our expert panel narrowed down the submissions, after thorough review and discussions and announced the chosen Top 10. Consisting of six teams from startups and four from college students, the ideas were innovative and fresh. These finalists, spanning four Indian States, are poised to make a difference with their ideas. Ranging from smart dustbins, particulate matter monitoring devices, and real-time water quality monitoring systems to warehouse management bots and real-time soil monitoring, they have it all covered.

In the first week of August, a one-day workshop will have been planned for the ten finalists to give them hands-on experience with the LFN (Limited Function Node) HW kit and SW development platform, following which the participants will begin the development of the application.

Once the concepts are built, in the final leg of their journey, the ten teams will evaluate the PoC at the Living lab using the existing Wi-SUN backbone network in the IIIT Hyderabad campus.

The winners would then be finalized by the panel of experts followed by the award ceremony where the winners will take home grand cash prizes worth Rs. 8 lakhs (9.6 k in USD).

The Wi-SUN Challenge is a collaborative effort between IIITH Smart City Living Lab and Silicon Labs, as part of their campus-wide Wi-SUN network initiative. The Wi-SUN Challenge has been a tremendous success so far. However, this is not just a competition—it is a catalyst for real-world impact. It is about working together and striving to make substantial changes in the world around us.

A Q&A with Khushboo Kalyani, Product Manager, Wireless Connectivity and Cellular Test Systems, LitePoint

Q1: You’ve been representing LitePoint at various Wi-Fi industry events. What is Wi-Fi 7 bringing to the table that’s new and interesting?

Khushboo: At LitePoint, we expect to start seeing Wi-Fi 7 used more widely in IoT applications, which will be a key growth driver, in addition to more conventional uses in clients such as smartphones, access points, gateways, laptops and tablets. These emerging IoT uses cases could include Wi-Fi 7 adoption in devices such as smart TV speakers, home door locks and other smart home sensors.

Today, there are different technologies used by IoT devices. Approximately a third of them operate on low-power long range wide area network technologies like Sigfox, LoRa, HaLow, NB-IoT, CAT-M and such. Another third uses wireless personal area network (WPAN) technologies like Bluetooth, Zigbee, Z-Wave or similar. The remaining third or less use Wi-Fi. Based on what I’m hearing from customers, I think people are concluding that Wi-Fi can easily – and equally – serve the IoT category.

That is especially true among applications that are latency-sensitive, which will benefit from Wi-Fi 7’s new low-data-rate modulation coding schemes, MCS14 and MCS15. These schemes were introduced to increase reliability and maximize transmission range in the 6GHz band for low-power IoT devices.

Q2: What are the broader implications for IoT adoption of Wi-Fi 7?

Khushboo: In many applications today, Wi-Fi is already omnipresent. That has sparked a larger conversation on the adoption of Wi-Fi across IoT devices, where they can leverage existing Wi-Fi infrastructure and simplify deployment within industrial, home and enterprise applications. This, in turn, will facilitate scalability and minimize interoperability issues.

Key chipset companies around the globe are already leading the way with low-power W-Fi solutions.

Q3: How are these emerging Wi-Fi 7 chipsets for IoT applications keeping a tight rein on power budgets?

Khushboo: IoT devices do not require a constant active internet connection. With that in mind, Wi-Fi 6 introduced a feature called target wake time (TWT). This feature allows devices to negotiate when and how often they will wake up to send or receive data, significantly reducing power consumption by minimizing unnecessary wakeups. Although the feature was introduced in Wi-Fi 6, we expect it to take off in Wi-Fi 7 and beyond.

Additionally, chipsets can implement custom low-power listening modes, which enhance efficiency when listening for network activity and further reduces power consumption when monitoring signals.

Q4: What are some of the underlying technical advantages of Wi-Fi 7?

Khushboo: Three features stand out for me. First, is the new 4096-QAM modulation scheme, which allows for higher data rates by packing more bits together but requires higher signal-to-noise ratio or clean-channel conditions and increases radio complexity.

Another feature that is more functional is multi-link operation, which allows more efficient use of spectrum. This feature was not available in previous generations of Wi-Fi and will truly improve practical Wi-Fi deployment and can be used in Wi-Fi 7 and beyond.

For me, this is a differentiating feature compared to previous-generation technology, because it allows you to aggregate multiple channels, whether it’s a 2.4GHz, a 5GHz or a 6GHz channel, or whatever combination of spectrum you have available. This allows you to do a few of things:

• Send different data streams across channels to increase overall throughput
• Send the same data stream across multiple channels to increase redundancy
• Perform dynamic channel switching in real-time to improve the opportunities for high-priority transmission.

The other thing multi-link operation enables is a more optimized use of the 6GHz band, which has not been adopted uniformly across all countries for unlicensed use. Now, whichever geographic region you’re serving, Wi-Fi 7’s multi-link operation will allow you to fully utilize your available spectrum efficiently.

The third important feature is preamble puncturing, a very useful capability that enables efficient spectrum utilization. It is particularly beneficial in the 5GHz band where an incumbent would otherwise prevent the entire channel’s use. By allowing transmissions to occur even in the presence of narrowband interference, preamble puncturing enhances overall throughput and spectral efficiency.

Q5: With the proliferation of Wi-Fi 7, what do customers need to know about test requirements?

Khushboo: What is driving change is the need for 160MHz and 320MHz test capability. In the past, 20MHz, 40MHz and 80MHz were the channel bandwidths available in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz spectrum and were deployed in a typical enterprise access point or home set-up.

With Wi-Fi 7, despite the lack of practical deployment, customers are still eager to highlight the capability of 320MHz or 160MHz Wi-Fi across six or seven channels. For that reason, they need equipment with the capability to test that much bandwidth either during R&D or as part of manufacturing or design validation testing. LitePoint has the equipment capable of testing with supreme accuracy at 320MHz and 160MHz.

Customers also need equipment with excellent error vector magnitude (EVM) performance that is at least 8dB to 10dB better than the device’s performance. This is to ensure that the tester does not introduce any inaccuracies to the device measurement.

Another critical aspect to test is UL-OFDMA. For this feature to work accurately, client devices must be synchronized to avoid interference and align correctly within the allocated subcarriers. From a testing perspective, this involves measuring carrier frequency offset and transmission timing accuracy to ensure synchronization within a specific tolerance.

Another important aspect to validate is spectrum mask for a PPDU containing punctured channel(s). The IEEE spec has defined a definitive list of puncturing patterns for OFDMA and non-OFDMA transmissions based on PPDU and puncturing bandwidth. When testing this, the idea is to measure the leakage from the occupied subchannel(s) into the punctured subchannel(s) to ensure it is low and will not cause any interference.

In addition to all the standard tests on power, transmit center frequency leakage, receiver sensitivity, spectral flatness and more must be performed to ensure accurate calibration and transmit and receiver RF parametric verification.

Q6: How is LitePoint engineering your test equipment to keep ahead of customer requirements? As they integrate multiple wireless standards into their chipsets, for example, are they expecting a similar level of integration with your test platforms?

Khushboo:  We have seen integrated chipsets and modules supporting Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for a while now in the market and recently some chipset companies have announced solutions that integrate Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology as well into the mix. From a test perspective each of these technologies needs to be tested well, as their underlying implementation is different thus requiring different RF PHY characteristics to be validated, they operate on different frequency ranges, bandwidths and thus they may have different test times.

While integrated chipsets are advancing, the choice of test equipment depends on many factors, since the requirements vary significantly between R&D to production. As an example, generally R&D & design validation groups tend to have dedicated teams specifically focusing on characterization and validation of a specific technology which requires purpose-built testers with advanced features and accuracy. QA teams on the other hand may find some value in an integrated platform as their test plan includes end product performance validation, interoperability tests or coexistence tests as some of these technologies share antennas and common frequency bands. If you look at manufacturing there KPI’s are centered around equipment reliability, longevity, yield, throughput, support for customized automation tool, cost of test and test times as they can vary drastically for each of these technologies. As you can see there are multiple factors that play a role in designing a tester and the requirements vary based on the product development stage.  So honestly there is no one-size tester that fits all and hence we work closely with our customers to see what makes sense for them in terms of technology, cost and more.

Q7: In closing, what sets LitePoint apart from other companies offering Wi-Fi test?

Khushboo: Our motto is “simplifying test through innovation”.  As each generation becomes more complex, we strive to provide a simplified testing solution so you can focus on your product. We achieve this by building high-performance test systems and offering strong, continued customer support.

LitePoint’s comprehensive availability of automation solutions, the most extensive in the industry, sets us apart. Our IQfact+ software tool is known in the industry for simplicity and ease of use. Additionally, we’ve been the first movers in test to offer a fully integrated non-signaling solution for every Wi-Fi standard that’s come along. Our close collaboration with leading chipset vendors enables us to develop turnkey, chipset-specific solutions that meet your testing needs effectively.

At RUCKUS Networks, we understand the challenges you face as a higher education IT professional. Whether it is reduced funding, onboarding difficulties, outdoor connectivity, and more, RUCKUS is here to help. With our higher education-tailored products and solutions, you can overcome these challenges and achieve pervasive campus connectivity that elevates the student experience.

In the dynamic world of higher education, you face myriad challenges when it comes to managing your network. Some of these challenges include working with limited resources and the need to achieve campus-wide connectivity. At RUCKUS, we understand these challenges and offer solutions to help you get pervasive connectivity and ultimately elevate the student experience on your campus.

Limited Resources: Maximizing Value with Resource-Effective Solutions 

A major challenge for IT teams is operating within tight budget constraints. With demands on the campus network increasing while budgets remain the same, finding cost-effective solutions is critical.

RUCKUS^® solutions, which are powered by a broad range of access points (APs), switches, and AI-driven technology, are designed to scale easily so you can expand your network without significant additional costs. This scalability allows the network to grow with the institution’s needs without substantial investments. RUCKUS solutions are also built to last—they are specifically designed to handle high-density environments and data-intensive applications to reduce the need for frequent upgrades. One solution, in particular, RUCKUS One^®, is key to lowering operational expenses. This AI-driven network management program provides network management from a single pane of glass, helping lower costs by eliminating the need for multiple, costly management tools.

Another challenge facing higher education IT teams is staffing. Managing a complex campus network requires heavy resources, but many institutions struggle with short-staffed teams.

Resolving staffing issues is another key benefit of our network management solution, RUCKUS One. RUCKUS One can act as an additional team member by automating routine tasks, identifying and resolving network issues, providing analytics and insights into your network, and offering AI-driven recommendations to enhance network operations. With these tasks now taken off your team’s daily workload, you can focus on more strategic initiatives to enhance your campus. For more information on the benefits of managing your network with RUCKUS One, click here.

RUCKUS One is not the only way we can help your team; we also offer 24/7 customer support to make sure any issues are resolved accurately and promptly.

Campus Connections: Achieving Pervasive Connectivity

To properly serve students, staff, and faculty, your network needs to reach every corner of campus. Although this can pose a major challenge to IT teams, leveraging our suite of higher education products can help.

Our indoor and outdoor APs can help users get a strong connection no matter where they are on campus. In addition to this, RUCKUS One helps unify fragmented applications and services for easier management of the network and student use. Whether it is professors teaching in a lecture or fans sharing gameday clips from the stadium, RUCKUS products and solutions have your entire campus covered and ultimately help you enhance the student experience through your network infrastructure.

An Improved Campus with RUCKUS

Higher education IT teams face many challenges, but RUCKUS offers purpose-driven network solutions to address these issues. At RUCKUS, we are committed to helping you overcome these challenges and ultimately have a network with high-performing, pervasive connection that elevates the campus experience. For more information on how to achieve this, click here.

VIA Technologies has launched its powerful new range of IoT platforms, the SOM-5000, VAB-5000, and ARTiGO A5000, designed for industrial, commercial, and consumer applications that require highly capable edge AI.

Product designers have the option of the VIA SOM-5000, an advanced system-on-module that mounts into a carrier board; the VAB-5000, a pico-ITX form factor with built-in flexible I/O, a 40-pin RPi compatible connector, and direct DC power; and the ARTiGO A5000, an ultra-compact full system. All three are fanless designs, offering exceptional power-efficiency and extensibility.

At their heart, the MediaTek Genio 700 provides a powerful octa-core CPU featuring two Arm Cortex-A78 processors, plus a highly capable Mali-G57 GPU, dual display support, and advanced AV1/H.265/H.264 video decoding. Its multi-core NPU accelerates edge AI applications, enabling immediate responsiveness with on-chip processing. The integrated ISP supports very high-resolution cameras via the dual MIPI CSI interface. Connectivity includes Gigabit Ethernet MAC, plus options for WiFi-6 and 5G wireless connectivity. Applications can be developed using popular Android, Yocto Linux, or Ubuntu OS, and benefit from MediaTek’s NeuroPilot SDK for accelerating AI integration.

Learn more about VIA Technologies’ new Genio 700 powered platforms >

ANAHEIM, California (August 7, 2024) Zyxel Networks, a leader in delivering secure, AI- and cloud-powered business and home networking solutions, announced today that CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, has named Zyxel Networks a winner of two 2024 CRN Tech Innovator Awards. Zyxel Networks is being recognized for its WBE660S BE22000 WiFi 7 Triple-Radio NebulaFlex Pro Access Point in the Wireless Networking category and the USG FLEX 700H Security Firewall Appliance in the Security category.

This annual award showcases innovative vendors in the IT channel across 37 distinct technology categories ranging from cloud to storage to networking to security. The 2024 winners were selected by a panel of CRN editors who reviewed hundreds of vendor entries and solution provider testimonials. Standout innovations were determined using multiple criteria, including key capabilities, uniqueness, technological ingenuity, and ability to address customer and partner needs.

Zyxel WBE660S BE22000 WiFi 7 Triple-Radio NebulaFlex Pro Access Point is the first shipping WiFi 7 access point designed for the SMB market and is the only SMB WiFi 7 access point that incorporates Smart Antenna technology. NebulaFlex provides users with the flexibility of managing the access point as a standalone device, with an on-premises controller, or via the cloud for free using the intuitive Nebula Control Center which enables users to manage a complete network of Nebula-compatible access points, security firewalls, and switches, from a single pane of glass. WBE660S incorporates a 10G Ethernet uplink that enables the access point to translate the BE22000-class wireless speeds into wired speeds on the rest of the network. In addition to 802.3bt PoE, WBE660S can also be powered from a standard USB-C power source. WBE660S integrates with Zyxel Networks security gateways to offer Collaborative Detection & Response (CDR) to block or quarantine compromised client devices at the network edge.

Zyxel USG FLEX 700H Security Firewall Appliance is a multi-gigabit 2.5G and 10G port advanced security firewall with built-in 30W PoE+ for high-speed UTM threat protection that supports increased WAN speeds without compromising network security. The firewall provides 15,000 Mbps SPI firewall throughput, 4,000 Mbps UTM throughput, and support for 2,000,000 concurrent sessions, bringing high-speed security for 2.5G WAN connections down to an SMB price point. USG FLEX 700H, which can be managed via the Nebula Cloud Management system, includes a complete suite of security services including anti-malware, intrusion prevention system (IPS), application patrol, web filtering, reputation filter, SecuReporter, sandboxing, device insight, and Secure WiFi. The versatile firewall features two multi-gigabit 2.5G ports, 2 multi-gigabit 10G ports with 802.3at 30W PoE++ support, eight 1G ports, and two 10G SFP+ ports with independently configurable ports for added flexibility.

“We are inspired by the commitment to continuous innovation among this year’s CRN Tech Innovator Award winners and finalists. Each of these technology vendors delivers cutting-edge offerings that meet evolving customer needs and create new opportunities for solution providers,” said Jennifer Follett, VP, U.S. Content, and Executive Editor, CRN, The Channel company. “We look forward to future innovations from the recipients and to seeing how they advance success across the channel.”

“We are honored to be recognized as winners in both the wireless networking and security categories by the CRN staff,” explained David Soares, Executive Vice President Channel Sales and Marketing North America for Zyxel Networks. “Zyxel is dedicated to delivering innovative networking products and solutions that maximize the performance, productivity, and security of SMBs, while providing the value, features, and support that enable our partners to grow and flourish. The receipt of the CRN Tech Innovator Awards in two categories definitely validates our efforts.”

The Tech Innovator Awards will be featured in the August issue of CRN and can be viewed online at crn.com/techinnovators.

For more information about Zyxel, its connectivity solutions, and the Zyxel Authorized Partner Program, visit www.zyxel.com/us and follow us on Facebook, X(formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn.

About Zyxel:

Zyxel Networks is a technology provider with over 30 years of experience, specializing in delivering solutions for small to medium-sized businesses and the enterprise-edge in partnership with VARs, MSPs and System Integrators. We enable network professionals to connect and protect organizations with greater ease by bringing together intuitive, scalable and secure cloud management with a complete portfolio of network devices.

About The Channel Company

The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers, and end users. Backed by more than 40 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelcompany.com

Follow The Channel Company: LinkedIn, Facebook, and X.

© 2024 The Channel Company, Inc. The Channel Company logo is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, Inc. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

San Jose, Calif. – Aug. 6, 2024 – NETGEAR®, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTGR), the leading provider of networking products that power businesses of any size, announced the launch of the WBE710 Insight Manageable Tri-band WiFi 7 Access Point, the newest addition to the company’s WiFi 7 business access point lineup.

The number of devices with multi-gig capabilities is increasing, and upgrades to a business’s network must be made to meet the volume of data. As businesses scale and more WiFi 7-enabled devices enter the market, this need will only continue to become more critical. Based on the latest WiFi 7 technology, the WBE710 improves data throughput across multiple bands and reduces network congestion, surpassing older access points in speed, latency, and capacity. The access point will also solve issues around signal interference with preamble puncturing, which will soon be available, and will allow devices to use parts of different channels to transmit data, greatly reducing network congestion.

“We have only started to see the power of WiFi 7 since its announcement earlier this year,” said Iphie Chen, director of Product Management at NETGEAR. “Businesses of all sizes need to be considering not only how to handle the growth of existing devices but also the inevitable influx of WiFi 7-enabled devices into their work environments. The WBE710 offers the flexibility to have a powerful access point today, while being prepared for the needs of tomorrow.”

The WBE710 provides easy local management, plus optional centralized cloud management, with no additional hardware needed through NETGEAR’s Insight management solution. It also offers backwards compatibility with all the other NETGEAR Insight Manageable Wireless Access Points and with previous generation WiFi devices, ensuring that businesses that rely heavily on wireless internet for day-to-day operations can easily integrate it into their existing infrastructure.

Additional Capabilities

• Unmatched 802.11be performance with up to 9.4Gbps throughput.
• 8 separate wireless networks (SSIDs) can be configured. Ideal for businesses with many connected devices, such as wireless printers, laptops, cell phones, tablets, and more.
• Includes a 2.5Gbps PoE+ Ethernet port for fast speed and easy wiring (ideal NETGEAR switches to power WBE710 are MS108TUP, MS324TXUP and MS510TXUP).
• Simultaneously send and receive data on multiple bands with WiFi 7’s Multi-Link Operation.
• Seamless roaming and load balancing for unrivaled user experience throughout the coverage area.
• Dedicated wireless backhaul shared between other Pro WiFi APs to form a reliable Instant WiFi Mesh network.
• MU-MIMO enables maximum client density deployments with no interference.
• Compactly designed with fast ceiling or wall mounting to stylishly blend into any environment.
• Optimized, omni-directional, integrated antennas for maximum RF performance and coverage.
• One year of Insight Remote Management included.

NETGEAR’s Total Network Solution

The WBE710 is the latest addition to NETGEAR’s Total Network Solution. Combined with the PR60X Pro Router, the latest Multi-Gig PoE switches and NETGEAR Insight, this access point brings value and leading-edge functionality to a complete networking ecosystem that is easy to deploy, manage and monitor from a single pane of glass.

Available today, the WBE710 can be found at major retailers for $349.99.

About NETGEAR, Inc.

NETGEAR® (NASDAQ: NTGR) has pioneered advanced networking technologies for homes, businesses, and service providers around the world since 1996 and leads the industry with a broad range of award-winning products designed to simplify and improve people’s lives. By enabling people to collaborate and connect to a world of information and entertainment, NETGEAR is dedicated to delivering innovative and advanced connected solutions ranging from mobile and cloud-based services for enhanced control and security, to smart networking products, video over Ethernet for Pro AV applications, easy-to-use WiFi solutions and performance gaming routers to enhance online game play. The company is headquartered out of San Jose, Calif. with offices located around the globe. More information is available from the NETGEAR Press Room or by calling (408) 907-8000. Connect with NETGEAR: Facebook, Instagram and the NETGEAR blog at NETGEAR.com.

©2024 NETGEAR, Inc. NETGEAR, NETGEAR Insight and the NETGEAR logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NETGEAR, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. Other brand and product names are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holder(s). The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. NETGEAR shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. All rights reserved.

 Source: NETGEAR-G

U.S. Media Contact:

Valerie Motis

Valerie.motis@NETGEAR.com

NETGEAR@AccesstheAgency.com

U.S. Sales Inquiries: (408) 907-8000, sales@netgear.com

In today’s digital age, businesses are constantly seeking innovative ways to connect with their customers. One of the most effective yet often overlooked methods is WiFi marketing. This powerful tool leverages an existing WiFi network to create a seamless and engaging customer experience while providing businesses with valuable data and marketing opportunities. As we move into 2024, here are six compelling reasons why businesses should implement WiFi marketing solutions.

1. Enhanced Customer Experience with WiFi Marketing

Seamless Connectivity: Offering free WiFi to customers can significantly enhance their experience. Whether they are waiting in a restaurant, shopping in a store, or staying in a hotel, access to fast and reliable WiFi allows customers to stay connected and entertained. This convenience can lead to increased satisfaction and longer dwell times, which can translate into higher sales.

Personalized Engagement: WiFi marketing platforms, such as GoZone WiFi, allow businesses to create personalized engagement opportunities. When customers log in to the WiFi network, they can be greeted with tailored messages, promotions, and recommendations based on their preferences and previous interactions.

2. Data Collection and Analytics Through WiFi Marketing

Valuable Insights: WiFi marketing solutions enable businesses to collect valuable data on customer behavior, preferences, and demographics. This information can be used to understand customer patterns, identify popular products or services, and tailor marketing strategies accordingly.

Improved Decision Making: With detailed analytics, businesses can make data-driven decisions to optimize their operations and marketing efforts. For instance, analyzing foot traffic data can help retailers determine peak shopping times and adjust staffing levels accordingly.

3. Targeted Marketing Campaigns via WiFi Marketing

Effective Promotions: WiFi marketing allows businesses to create highly targeted marketing campaigns. By analyzing the data collected through WiFi networks, businesses can segment their audience and send personalized promotions, offers, and advertisements directly to customers’ devices.

Increased Conversion Rates: Targeted marketing campaigns are more likely to resonate with customers, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates. For example, a coffee shop can send a discount code for a popular drink to customers who have previously purchased similar items.

4. Customer Loyalty and Retention with WiFi Marketing

Loyalty: WiFi marketing platforms can drive engagement with loyalty platforms, making it easy for customers to sign up and participate. Businesses can reward customers for their loyalty with exclusive offers, discounts, and points that can be redeemed for future purchases.

Enhanced Customer Relationships: By consistently engaging with customers through WiFi marketing, businesses can build stronger relationships and foster loyalty. Regular communication and personalized offers show customers that their business is valued, encouraging repeat visits.

5. Increased Brand Awareness Through WiFi Marketing

Brand Visibility: Offering free WiFi can increase brand visibility and awareness. When customers connect to a business’s WiFi network, they often encounter a branded splash page with the company’s logo, promotions, and other information. This consistent exposure reinforces brand identity and keeps the business top of mind.

Social Media Integration: WiFi marketing can also encourage social media engagement. For example, businesses can prompt customers to check in on social media or share their experience in exchange for free WiFi access, further amplifying brand reach and visibility.

6. Competitive Advantage with WiFi Marketing

Stand Out from Competitors: In a competitive market, offering free WiFi and leveraging WiFi marketing can set a business apart from its competitors. Customers are more likely to choose a location that provides free WiFi, especially if it enhances their overall experience.

Innovative Marketing Strategies: Implementing WiFi marketing solutions demonstrates that a business is forward-thinking and innovative. Staying ahead of technological trends can attract tech-savvy customers and position the business as a leader in its industry.

Conclusion: Why WiFi Marketing is Crucial for Business Success in 2024

As businesses continue to seek innovative ways to connect with their customers and stay ahead of the competition, WiFi marketing emerges as a powerful tool. By enhancing customer experiences, collecting valuable data, creating targeted marketing campaigns, fostering loyalty, increasing brand awareness, and gaining a competitive edge, WiFi marketing offers numerous benefits that can drive business growth and success in 2024 and beyond.

Implementing WiFi marketing solutions like GoZone WiFi can help businesses unlock the full potential of this technology, providing a seamless and engaging customer experience while delivering actionable insights and marketing opportunities. As we move into 2024, now is the perfect time for businesses to embrace WiFi marketing and reap the rewards of this innovative approach. Get started FREE today!

For more information on how to optimize your business with WiFi marketing, visit GoZone WiFi today. Discover how WiFi marketing can transform your business and set you apart in a competitive market.

While public Wi-FI can be very convenient, both for users and providers, it also introduces a number of security challenges. Unsecured or under-secured public Wi-Fi networks can expose users to cyber threats like identity theft, financial fraud and data breaches. Once they are connected, attackers can monitor all traffic, extract sensitive data, and even inject and spread malware.

DNS queries are fundamental to the functionality of the internet; every time you access a website, you’re sending a DNS query. Some of these can be malicious. In fact, an average internet user might access as many as 5,000 DNS queries a day and up to five of those might be malicious. That’s equivalent to 1,825 incidents per year. A malicious query can be a wide range of activities, from phishing to ransomware to cryptojacking. Often, these queries take the form of redirecting traffic from a legitimate website to a similarly named malicious website.

This brings up a quandary: Today, offering public Wi-Fi is table stakes for places like hotels, airports and even restaurants. For these businesses, providing this service is part of the customer experience. Going to a hotel and discovering they don’t offer free public Wi-Fi is almost shocking. However, it comes with risks. Research from OnePoll found that public Wi-Fi at restaurants and cafes accounted for 25% of all personal data compromise, with airports at 23% and hotels at 20%.

The easy solution is to just not offer this service, but from a business standpoint, that’s not realistic. Ensuring you can provide safe, secure public Wi-Fi can protect your company and your customers. It can even become a competitive differentiator.

How do you do this? It starts with understanding the threats to these networks, with enough context that you can understand the most effective and affordable solution. It’s also key to understand some of the best practices to follow to keep public Wi-Fi use safe for your business and your end-users.

Exploiting public Wi-Fi vulnerabilities

Public Wi-Fi networks have vulnerabilities that leave organizations open to many threats that can result in data breaches, theft of customer data and possible financial losses. To make these networks secure, organizations need to understand their many risks.

These are some of the biggest public Wi-Fi network threats:

• Malware: Malicious software comes in many varieties; its aim is to sneak onto or damage a network.
• Ransomware: This kind of malware encrypts an organization’s files and requires a ransom to decrypt that data.
• Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks: Hackers tap into two parties’ communication and either listen in or change the data they are transmitting.
• Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs): APTs occur when attackers sneak onto a network and exfiltrate data over time. They get into a device while a user is accessing a public network and then persist their access when the user gets back on the corporate network to expand their undetected access.

Five best practices for Wi-Fi security

There are proactive steps organizations can take to secure their public Wi-Fi. These steps create the foundation for a holistic security strategy to keep the network resistant to data breaches and an array of cyberattacks, and to keep customer data safe.

One step is to implement encryption standards.Use WPA3 for Wi-Fi networks or other robust encryption protocols to make sure that data sent via the network is encrypted. That makes data interception difficult for attackers.

Another step is web content filtering, which is crucial in blocking access to malicious content and sites that might jeopardize the Wi-Fi network’s security. Organizations can substantially lower their risk of breaches introduced via web browsing by filtering out phishing URLs and other known malicious sites and categories of sites that usually disseminate malware.

Installing firewalls is important, too, because they form a barricade between the internet and the public Wi-Fi network. They use predetermined security rules to observe traffic in both directions. If they are configured right, firewalls are good at preventing unauthorized access and some kinds of attacks.

Another step is to disable file sharing. This feature can be highly risky on public networks because it could let attackers directly access sensitive data or install malware. It involves turning off Bluetooth discovery and anything else that’s not essential. This helps make the attack surface as small as possible.

Finally, useVirtual Private Networks.They make encrypted tunnels that enable data to securely and privately pass between the network and the user. Mandating use of VPNs for those using public Wi-Fi will help safeguard data from hackers trying to grab sensitive data.

A secure experience for all

Public and guest Wi-Fi is a key service for today’s businesses (and other institutions) but these services represent massive risk as well. Public Wi-Fi must meet the same cybersecurity standards of any other business system. Many network threats lie in wait, and attacks continue to increase in sophistication and volume. Check the list of Wi-Fi security best practices noted above against your current practices, adjust and upgrade as needed. This will ensure a safe experience for your users and your network.

SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–NETGEAR®, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTGR), the leader in advanced networking technologies for homes, businesses, and service providers around the world, today announced several new additions to its leadership bench. The new board member and executives follow the appointment of CJ Prober as NETGEAR’s CEO earlier this year, and join the robust group of accomplished leaders at NETGEAR.

“These talented executives bring incredible pedigrees, subject matter expertise and track records to our team. Collaborating with the rest of our talented team, they will contribute to delivering exceptional products and services to our customers across the globe,” said CJ Prober, Chief Executive Officer, NETGEAR. “As we look forward, these leaders will be instrumental in supporting the transformation of our businesses and driving long-term value creation for shareholders.”

Laura Orvidas joined the NETGEAR Board of Directors this month. She is the Chief Executive Officer of onXmaps, a leading consumer subscription company that helps inform, inspire, and empower outdoor enthusiasts. Prior to onX, Orvidas spent almost 18 years at Amazon in various positions before assuming the role of Vice President, Consumer Electronics, and Amazon Basics private label. Her consumer electronics and subscription experience will be instrumental to the future business transformation of NETGEAR.

Pramod Badjate brings his extensive experience in leading large networking businesses to his new role of President and GM of NETGEAR for Business. He invested his entire career in enterprise networking at Cisco, Ruckus Networks and, most recently, as the Group Vice President and General Manager for the Cognitive Campus business at Arista Networks. His invaluable experience as an engineering and product leader and proven track record as a general manager will help spur the continued growth of NETGEAR’s AV and IT businesses.

Kirsten Daru joins NETGEAR as the new General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer with a strong background serving in similar roles with top technology companies. She spent over 11 years at Electronic Arts (EA) where she was appointed its first Chief Privacy Officer. After EA, she served as the General Counsel of Tile and when the company merged with Life360 she was appointed General Counsel of the combined company. She brings a reputation as a strategic leader to NETGEAR, focused on fostering a competitive marketplace where innovation can thrive.

Fiona Spratt steps into a new role at NETGEAR as the Senior Vice President of People, after being with the company for more than 10 years where she moved up the ranks of the HR department in Europe. She also successfully led the project to relocate NETGEAR’s international headquarters in Cork, Ireland, to accommodate a new software development center of excellence. In doing so, she played a critical role in helping the company to accelerate its transformation towards becoming more software-centric by leveraging the pipeline of diverse talent in Ireland. As a global leader, she will be responsible for helping to evolve NETGEAR’s culture for the benefit of current and future employees worldwide.

Antonio López Reus comes to NETGEAR as the new vice president of Strategy and Strategic Partnerships. He joins the company from Amazon, where he led revenue-generating partnerships for the Alexa Smart Home product line. Prior to Amazon, he managed Product Partnerships for Tile, bringing the technology to leading brands including Fitbit, Skullcandy, Google Home, and Alexa. Prior to his roles with Amazon and Tile, he led Asia-Pacific and Emerging Channels for Google Nest and was a Principal for the Boston Consulting Group. His wealth of experience and industry relationships will help NETGEAR discover and validate new opportunities for growth.

More information about the full NETGEAR executive team can be found here and the Board of Directors here.

About NETGEAR, Inc.

NETGEAR® (NASDAQ: NTGR) has pioneered advanced networking technologies for homes, businesses, and service providers around the world since 1996 and leads the industry with a broad range of award-winning products designed to simplify and improve people’s lives. By enabling people to collaborate and connect to a world of information and entertainment, NETGEAR is dedicated to delivering innovative and advanced connected solutions ranging from mobile and cloud-based services for enhanced control and security, to smart networking products, video over Ethernet for Pro AV applications, easy-to-use WiFi solutions and performance gaming routers to enhance online game play. The company is headquartered out of San Jose, Calif. with offices located around the globe. More information is available from the NETGEAR Press Room or by calling (408) 907-8000. Connect with NETGEAR: Facebook, Instagram and the NETGEAR blog at NETGEAR.com.