- Wed Feb 04, 2015 6:01 pm
#8994
hi,
a few companies, namely Aeroscout, Ekahau and Zebra offers very expensive WiFi tags that can be affixed on logistics goods (shopping carts, packages) that can then be tracked by existing WiFi infrastructure. The tracking typically happens by infering the location of the tag using the received signal strength (RSSI) and RF signature.
Major concerns of these types of systems are
1) very hard to get a sample wifi tag through them or their channel partners,
2) have to work with yet another 3rd party location engine
3) typically not a fixed pricing (charges you a lot more if you are an "enterprise" entity)
4) lets face it, those enterprise WiFi tags under the hood sucks !
It would seem to me ESP8266 can be the cheaper, more robust alternative for construction of these WiFi tags.
The esp8266 would not have to do much beyond wake up every 1 minute, then issue a probe request. A seperate
uC can be used to toggle the sleep wakeup cycle (for example, completely turn off esp8266 using a FET) to further reduce sleep current to under a few uA as typicaly these WiFI tags advertise over 4 years of continuous runtime (albeit , not emiting probe request as frequently as 1 minute)
is this something people would be interested in pursuing ? has anyone done something like this ?
thanks
a few companies, namely Aeroscout, Ekahau and Zebra offers very expensive WiFi tags that can be affixed on logistics goods (shopping carts, packages) that can then be tracked by existing WiFi infrastructure. The tracking typically happens by infering the location of the tag using the received signal strength (RSSI) and RF signature.
Major concerns of these types of systems are
1) very hard to get a sample wifi tag through them or their channel partners,
2) have to work with yet another 3rd party location engine
3) typically not a fixed pricing (charges you a lot more if you are an "enterprise" entity)
4) lets face it, those enterprise WiFi tags under the hood sucks !
It would seem to me ESP8266 can be the cheaper, more robust alternative for construction of these WiFi tags.
The esp8266 would not have to do much beyond wake up every 1 minute, then issue a probe request. A seperate
uC can be used to toggle the sleep wakeup cycle (for example, completely turn off esp8266 using a FET) to further reduce sleep current to under a few uA as typicaly these WiFI tags advertise over 4 years of continuous runtime (albeit , not emiting probe request as frequently as 1 minute)
is this something people would be interested in pursuing ? has anyone done something like this ?
thanks
