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This chapter describes the role of Location Analytics service that is supported on the Cisco mobility services engine (MSE).
This chapter contains the following sections:
•About the Location Analytics Service
•Location Analytics Service Within a Cisco Unified Wireless Network
•Getting Information on Your Network
The Advanced Location services includes the recently acquired ThinkSmart Technology Software, which has been integrated into the mobility services engine. The location analytics is a system that provides a set of data analytic tools packaged for analyzing Wi-Fi device location data that comes from the MSE.
The Location Analytics analyzes wireless device location information in a particular network and provides analytic information for historical trends and patterns. The Location Analytics service uses the data provided by MSE to calculate the location of wireless devices in the WLAN. This enables greater visibility into customer movements and behavior across the building throughout the day. The location analytics determine device parameters such as dwell time, crowding, path choice, and aggregate these for common understanding.
Business can better understand how their customers interact with different parts of their building or environment. The benefits to the venue owners are as follows:
•Analyze business performance through measuring in-venue actions and improve marketing.
•Helps document customers movement throughout the building
•Increase customer satisfaction through sufficient staffing during peak times.
This allows for better facility planning, measurement of changes to the building, and business interaction with customers.
Cisco Unified Wireless Network Solution ensures that your business achieves the highest level of network security and versatility. Cisco UWN solution empowers your network with the ability to offer secure wireless networking, either within your office for increased mobility or bridging between your office buildings. The following are the components of CUWN:
•Access Points—The Access point is the end point on the network side that provides the wireless access.
•Wireless LAN Controllers—The controller actively manages these APs w.r.t what channel it operates, how does the client gets attach to it, what security types are supported and so on.
•Prime Infrastructure—Prime Infrastructure is a web based application used to configure and manage controllers and associated APs. Prime Infrastructure provides a centralized management.
•Mobility Services Engine—MSE is an open platform that [provides a new approach for delivery of the mobility services and applications. The MSE is managed by the Prime Infrastructure and supports various services.
The following figure shows the overall architecture within which the Location Analytics system fits. The Location Analytics service contains the following components:
•Analysis
•Reporting
•Administration
Figure 1-1
Location Analytics Architecture
The process of downloading and creating a database of devices or path information is automatic. If the installation is new, then the collection of data starts immediately and continues to download increments of data every 15 minutes. If you are upgrading to an existing MSE that has been collecting data, then the system downloads the previous 3 days data before continuing every 15 minutes. The analytics is available immediately when the data is in the database.