Its the ultimate answer to the needle-in-a-haystack problem: Using your wireless LAN to enable asset tracking of expensive equipment, monitor locations of patients or personnel, facilitate stock replenishment, even pinpoint a container within a huge warehouse. Wi-Fi location services can also boost security by tailoring access based on a user's location within your facility. Talk about wringing additional value out of a major investment.

Wi-Fi location services have similarities to GPS and radio frequency identification technologies but have thus far lagged in popularity. In 2006, just 135,000 Wi-Fi location tags shipped, according to a May 2007 In-Stat report.

Why the slow uptake? They're expensive, and at an average of $60 a pop, no one is tossing Wi-Fi tags on $200 smartphones. Battery life can also be an issue. However, that report goes on to predict a 100% growth rate per year, as vendors refine their offerings and prices drop. Here's a prime opportunity for forward-thinking IT groups to get in on the ground floor of a technology that can pay off big in security and competitive advantage.

Right now, only a handful of vendors play in the Wi-Fi location market, but big names are represented, including Cisco Systems, Meru Networks, Newbury Networks, and Trapeze Networks. Top Wi-Fi tag vendors include AeroScout; PanGo Networks, which recently merged with InnerWireless; Ekahau; and WhereNet. Many of these provide applications as well, often focused on vertical markets, usually health care, logistics, and cargo handling. Find our sneak peek at the vendor landscape at nwc.com/go/wifi_loca tion_vendors.

Enterprises considering location must ensure tight-enough accuracy while minimizing expensive integration and customization. Currently, some amount of consulting is going to be required--Yankee Group says professional services make up 20% of the cost of an average location system.

To help you choose vendors that meet your needs while minimizing this expense, we're taking this Rolling Review in a new direction, issuing a comprehensive request for information to a wide variety of vendors.

THE CAFETERIA CONUNDRUM
We're seeing two main use cases for Wi-Fi location services: asset tracking and location-based control, where someone's in-building location determines network access. It's the first that garners the most attention, but that's changing as security-conscious companies realize that location applications are a natural progression of NAC initiatives.

Think about it: The primary focus of network access control has been on who a person is, neglecting the where. No one wants even authorized users accessing sensitive data in public areas. Adding location capabilities to your WLAN can solve this problem because any Wi-Fi-equipped laptop can be tracked, no tags needed. Meru Networks and Motorola offer capabilities that let organizations limit access to the network and applications based on a wireless user's physical location. In addition, the wireless intrusion-detection and -prevention market has begun to develop an element of rogue-client or access-point detection control based on work pioneered by Newbury Networks.

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