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Comprehensive Industry Specific Wireless Solutions
At iPath, we’re able to provide products and solutions to match industry specific requirements. Because we have designed and deployed solutions for each individual industry, iPath can reduce the amount of time it takes to meet a given specification. Rather than spend time researching products and solutions to meet the need, we are in a position to make recommendations very quickly.
Healthcare
In the mission-critical environment of healthcare, delivering the very best in patient care requires doctors, nurses and other caregivers to be accessible and instantly able to reach colleagues as well as access a wealth of data. With an industry specific wireless LAN solution, you can deliver ‘right here, right now’ mobile access for voice and data to the pockets of your healthcare team, giving them the tools they need at the point of care to define a new level of healthcare excellence.
What Can Your Healthcare Facility Do With A Wireless LAN?
Healthcare facilities around the world utilise specialised industry exclusive wireless networks to deliver complete solutions for vital data, voice and other applications, including:
- Point-of-care applications: With mobile applications running over a wireless network, caregivers can verify medication, access patient records, order tests, collect specimens and more — right from the patient’s bedside
- Voice communications: Single and Dualmode Voice-over-WLAN phones and badges and Wi-Fi enabled nurse call systems allow nurses and physicians to easily communicate, roam throughout the facility, and respond to patient needs instantly
- Real-time patient, staff and asset tracking: The ability to wirelessly track any patient, staff or asset increases overall efficiency. Easily locate a specialist to perform an emergency procedure, a patient who is late for a test, a wheelchair or a specialised piece of equipment for an upcoming operation
- Patient and equipment monitoring: WLAN-enabled medical equipment allows nurses and other staff to monitor a patient's condition and the status of sensitive equipment, such as an IV pump, all in real-time — wherever they may be in the hospital
- Secure guest access: The same wireless LAN that provides mobile voice and data access to healthcare staff can be utilised to provide guest access to the Internet without impacting critical operations or jeopardising the privacy of your data, ensuring HIPAA compliance while providing a valuable service for visiting family and friends
- Dictation and Medical Transcription: Physicians are making use of dictation applications running on 802.11 enabled mobile devices. Audio files can be uploaded automatically from anywhere within the facility and reduce the cycle time between dictation and transcription
- Emergency Network/Disaster Relief: In the event of an emergency, healthcare operations may need to be expanded into non-patient areas of hospitals or shifted into non-hospital structures (e.g. schools). A WLAN that can be automatically configured and deployed will be of great use in this scenario
Warehousing/Logistics
Deploying WLAN in a warehouse is a direct response to the move towards real-time inventory systems and the need for accurate materials handling. To achieve cost-efficiency, network availability and real-time communications, WLANs have become as business-critical as the roads and rails that move products from factories to retail stores.
The Benefits Of WLAN For Logistics And Warehousing Operations
- Asset Tracking: Wi-Fi-enabled real-time location service (RTLS) is a key component of this game-changing technology to track inventory
- Supply Chain Management: Wireless supply chain management enables streamlined workflow processes and fast cycle counts to help reduce excess inventory build-up
- Infrastructure Build-outs: Wi-Fi allows enterprises to quickly expand or modify warehouse space in response to changing operating demands
- Communication: Voice over WLAN will give personnel access to real-time inventory information, voice communication, IM, and external databases such as inventory at other company warehouses
Transport
Mass transit operators are under pressure to deliver better passenger amenities to increase ticket sales and upgrade systems to improve fleet efficiency.
The Benefits That WLAN For Transport Operators
- Passenger Services: A key driver for many transport operators looking to improve the passenger experience. Wireless delivery of ticketing/seat reservations, Wi-Fi Internet access, public-address systems and passenger information systems
- Advertising on Public Transport: Wi-Fi based advertising content delivered via cellular-to-Wi-Fi gateways on buses; trains and ferries allow public transport operators make money, not from passengers, but from advertisers. Many operators are now looking at advertising revenue opportunities from third parties wanting to target a captive audience, thus keeping the service free to the passenger but helping underwrite or balance the ongoing monthly overhead
- Vehicle Control and Telemetry: IP-based wireless services can deliver signalling for vehicle and object tracking, status monitoring, accident alarming, passenger counting and crewing data
- Freight Control: Real-time location and status (e.g. temperature monitoring) tracking of cargo
- Security Surveillance: IP-based wireless CCTV, local and remote monitoring, tracking and alarm notification services
Retail
The Retail industry leverages a wide range of wireless applications to enable employee mobility, provide better customer service, and give critical decision-makers real-time product and inventory information. For a retailer, being able to quickly locate a specific item or know if it is out of stock is critical to ensuring customer satisfaction and continuity of business operations.
The Benefits Of WLAN For Retailers
- Point of Sale (POS): Deployment of wireless cash registers and barcode client devices.
- Asset Location: Allow tracking of products from arrival at distribution centres to final sale, together with real-time inventory information
- Customer Assistance: Support technologies such as customer self-help kiosks, consumer mobile devices, and personal shopper devices
- Voice over Wireless LAN (VoWLAN): Increase productivity by cutting customer response times and maximising employee access to managers
- Customer Wi-Fi: Scalable WLAN solutions allow retailers to offer their customers access to intelligent retail applications and social networks for product information, pricing comparison and in-store digital marketing to enable immediate buying decisions
Enterprise
Enterprises need the mobility and productivity benefits that come from an 802.11n wireless network. By relying on a shared high-speed wireless LAN in lieu of multiple ethernet connections per user, smart businesses are paying for their entire high-performance, adaptive 802.11n wireless network with savings obtained by rightsizing their wired network.
What Can Your Enterprise Environment Do With A Wireless LAN?
- Data: Multiple mobile devices per employee are becoming commonplace in the enterprise environment. WLAN’s offer these devices ubiquitous access to network services. WLAN’s also offer flexible distribution of these devices as staff move throughout the enterprise campus. An increasing number of Wi-Fi ready appliances such as projectors, printers and AV control are joining smartphones, tablet and laptop computing devices on the WLAN
- Voice: VoIP integrates business communications into a single infrastructure: the data network. Wireless VoIP offers features such as a single enterprise number and voicemail, speed dialling, transfer, call waiting, conference calling, international direct dialling and roaming, least-cost routing, and dynamic calling rules. All this with exceptional voice quality, mobility, and substantial cost savings compared with traditional circuit-switched telephony
- Video: Executive communications to employees through IPTV, on-demand playback of sales meetings or training sessions, and video conferencing are just a few of the rich-media applications that are helping organisations improve the effectiveness of communications across distributed groups. These applications enable faster and more trusted collaboration, reduce travel expenses, and increase the agility and competitiveness of the business
- Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC): The functionality of a voice capable WLAN will increase exponentially by integrating wireless VoIP with mobile carrier services. With FMC, an 802.11 enabled smartphone places a “free” voice call on the enterprise WLAN, and then seamlessly hands-off to a mobile network once the smartphone moves out of WLAN coverage
- Guest Access: Enterprises need to offer visiting contractors and guests access to their wireless network. A guest access solution must allow admin staff to quickly and easily provision guest access while ensuring compliance with security policy
Manufacturing
The factory floor is an ideal setting for WLAN to have a significant business impact. The manufacturing environment, however, poses significant challenges for WLAN's and care must be taken in selecting and placing infrastructure.
The Benefits Of WLAN For Manufacturers
- Barcode Readers: 802.11 enabled scanning devices for quality control monitoring and inventory control
- Voice-over-WLAN Solutions for the Plant: Bring the mobility and flexibility of wireless networking to your plant’s voice communications system
- Voice Picking: Voice Picking Solutions helps manufacturers improve the process of accurately finding, loading, and shipping the correct products to fill orders in the shortest possible time. VoIP handsets use real-time speech recognition to communicate with ERP, inventory, supply chain, and warehouse management systems
- Location Tracking (RTLS): Track the presence and real-time location of machines, raw materials, finished products or personnel through 802.11 WLAN's and location services technologies
- Telemetry: Manage production line machinery through wireless-enabled IP industrial control systems and perform environmental sampling and reporting (i.e. temperature, humidity etc.) via WLAN enabled sensors
- Security: 802.11 enabled security cameras, two-way call buttons, Wi-Fi pagers and wearable emergency tags offer reliable methods for monitoring facilities, signalling requests, alarming devices and personnel and delivering other triggers to back-end applications
Carriers
Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC)
The avenue for the carrier's to enhance profit, growth and their competitiveness in the market. The concept of FMC is based o the ability to access multimedia applications from a variety of end-user devices while roaming across a range of fixed-line and mobile networks has broad appeal. Enterprises see FMC as a way to improve employee efficiency, which may also help reduce telecom costs. Carriers look to FMC to help them survive and grow in a world where profits from providing mere connectivity and transport for voice and data are rapidly dwindling.
Education
In the 21st Century, information literacy is critical for a student's success later in life. Access to and experience with a wide range of IT applications is essential to ensuring this literacy.
The Benefits Of Pervasive Wi-Fi Deployment In Primary And Secondary Schools
- Infrastructure Flexibility: A school's learning technology needs are as diverse as class sizes. A WLAN can be quickly rolled out virtually anywhere to meet those needs
- Speed: Students can access a WLAN-enabled learning environment in a matter of seconds, without special connections or a tangle of cables
- Resource Mobility: A WLAN allows technology learning tools such as laptops to be moved to wherever students are, rather than vice-versa
The Unique Challenges Of Education
Deploying WLAN in the classroom can bring enormous benefits, but there are 4 distinct technological challenges to this environment:
- Small school IT departments are called upon to support large numbers of users, so the WLAN solution cannot require time-intensive configuration and administration. Wireless coverage issues are created by schools' sprawling layouts and the need to provide connectivity to multiple users in the confined area of a classroom
- Security compliance regulations require separation of student and faculty networks
- Uncertain school budget processes require that the deployed WLAN ensure costs are kept low, leverage existing infrastructure, and offer advantages in terms of scale and price
- Primary/Secondary educational institutions have a clear vision of the importance of Wi-Fi to their educational mission. The question is, how confident are school IT staff that today's technologies can meet the demands of their environment?
Hospitality
An efficient hospitality enterprise is one that increases profit per guest. This means giving patrons wireless access anywhere on the grounds, as well as using wireless applications to lower overall operational costs.
The Benefits Of WLAN In The Hospitality And Entertainment Industries
- Wireless housekeeping and maintenance applications
- Mobile order fulfilment and check-in services
- Mobile communication systems to ensure access to key personnel anywhere on premises
- Wireless security applications to ensure guest and employee safety
Airports
Many Airport authorities are adding free high-speed internet access as an amenity for travellers. Some offer access to the entire airport while others may limit access to the specified terminal or waiting for areas. In addition, many airline club lounges may have their own free access available.
Common Wireless Applications Specific To Airports
- Maintenance management
- Public wireless internet access
- Aircraft wireless communications
- Security services
- Baggage reconciliation
- Baggage maintenance
- Mobile self-service check-in
- Airline lounge wireless internet access
- Car park administration
Mining/Oil
Mining, oil/gas and energy companies operate complex processes that need to be constantly monitored and upgraded. WLAN is perfectly placed to streamline specific mining/oil processes.
Common Wireless Applications Specific To Mining/Oil
- Tracking via Wi-Fi RFID Tags
- Real-time vehicle diagnostics
- Accurate, real-time payload data
- Two-way voice with VoIP telephones
- Remote video
- Remote PLC programming
- Reporting via PDA's direct into database
- Many other 802.11 based Wi-Fi applications
Government
The use of IT to give citizens more direct access to services is revolutionising government operations in the 21st Century. WLAN, with its inherent operational flexibility, is helping enable e-Government at all levels. A Wireless LAN is cost-effective and scalable, easily extends existing infrastructure, enables a more citizen-centric approach, and eliminates inefficient processes, allowing the public sector to operate like a private enterprise.
The benefits that WLAN provides to national, state, and local governments
- Using PCs and PDAs supported by WLAN, mobile caseworkers can access and update critical backend databases
- Officials can directly interact with the public, via public space customer service centres, to provide them with services and assistance
- WLANs can be quickly put in place to provide network infrastructure during natural disasters or other emergencies
Unique Challenges Of Government
The high-profile nature of government operations means there can be some distinct challenges to implementing WLAN, including:
- Must support a wide range of applications and both new and legacy devices
- Implementation and operating costs must meet strict budgetary guidelines
- Government facilities can be RF-unfriendly (reinforced concrete) or historic (physical alterations are not permitted)
- Security must be absolute to meet strict privacy regulations