Some exciting things are beginning to transpire in today’s hotel industry. As technology finds its way into nearly every aspect of our lives, it’s important to take a look at the impact mobile device usage has had and continues to have on hoteliers and guests alike. Guests today are more technologically in-tune than ever before, often traveling with multiple devices that they plan to use leisurely, for business or both.  These devices are also increasingly moving more data as their radios become more sophisticated, and they have increased battery life and are connecting to even more cloud services.  Guests also have increasing expectations that they will always be connected wherever they are.

More smart devices translate to more data crossing the network, and this mass amount of data can be used to gather invaluable guest information for hoteliers, including behavioral insights and on-site property analytics. When collected, measured and used correctly, this data can create a unique and personalized mobile experience for the guest while also creating revenue-growth opportunities for hoteliers.

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Tags: access point, application, hospitality, Hospitality WiFi, hotel, hotelier, hotels, implement, location, location-based, network, networking, resort, services, technology, triangular, venue, wi-fi, wifi, wireless

Last week, a friend of mine jokingly asked me, “So, what is Santa bringing to Cisco’s wireless customers this holiday season?”

I couldn’t help but grin because I already knew what many of you are now aware of: Santa’s wireless holiday delivery came early this year, with Release 7.4 now posted on Cisco.com.

We at Cisco’s Wireless Networking Group are really excited to show off this shiny new release. 7.4 is jam-packed with 40+ features to improve the everyday lives of Cisco wireless customers.

You must be thinking: But you just released feature-heavy 7.3 in October AND new products, such as Virtual Wireless Controller and the highly scalable Wireless Controller 8510!

So what makes 7.4 so special? We specifically chose each feature with the goal of creating an uncompromised user-experience while keeping wireless network administrators happy by making it easy manage their WLAN more efficiently. The 7.4 release specifically focuses on four main pillars:

• Quality of Experience for Wireless Users
• Improved Security & Spectrum intelligence
• Improved performance for small deployments
• Ability to deploy innovative IT services using mobile apps

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Tags: access point, Aironet, application, AVC, Bonjour, controller, holiday, LAN, mobility, mobility services engine, network, networking, release 7.3, release 7.4, wi-fi, wifi, wireless, wlan

This Thursday at 10a.m. PST, we have a fabulous webinar where we’ll discuss a new wi-fi solution that can help businesses more effectively engage and better understand their customers.  What’s cool is that this new wi-fi solution will help businesses offer personalized and enhanced mobile experiences for their end users – even based on where they are or how long they’ve been at a particular spot.  A great part of this webcast will be the discussion on how businesses who’ve deployed it are using this new tech.  Click on the image to the right to register. 

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Tags: access point, byod, Cisco, cisco wireless network, connected mobile experience, mobility, Service Provider, service provider wi-fi, webinar, wi-fi, wireless network

The world is going mobile--have you seen those stats? In fact, you probably have some wireless infrastructure deployed in your business.

Have you always imagined getting more out of your Wi-Fi? Do you ever wonder if you can generate some revenue off of your enterprise infrastructure? Well do we have a treat for you! This Thursday, November 15th at 10AM PST, we have an awesome webinar where we’ll discuss how you can leverage wireless technologies to help you more effectively engage and better understand your customers.  What’s more, we’ll be going over actual customer stories of how they used these technologies and what they got out of it.  Sound good to you? Click on the image to register.

There will also be an opportunity for Q&A.  Overall, we’ll cover:

• How the new technology innovations are helping to enable today’s connected lifestyle
• How your existing wireless network can accommodate these trends and become a tool to generate new revenue
• How enterprises and service providers are deploying and benefiting from this technology

What’re you waiting for? Register today!

Tags: access point, Cisco, consumer, hospitality, mobility, network, retail, webinar, wireless, wlan

The question isn’t IF your users will need more bandwidth, but WHEN they will need more bandwidth. 802.11ac represents the next evolution of the 802.11 standard, and, as you’ve heard, this one really pegs the gas petal in the quest for speed. Offering a link-rate of up to 1.3Gbps, 802.11ac represents the first wireless standard that surpasses the gigabit barrier.

But what makes 802.11ac unique isn’t just bandwidth. The new standard represents a forced push to the cleaner 5GHz spectrum, as well as extended battery life, made possible by getting devices on and off the air more quickly. To learn more about the technical details under the hood of 802.11ac reference this whitepaper.

Cisco’s Aironet Access Point 3600 and an alpha version of the 802.11ac module were demonstrated during Cisco’s presentation during Wireless Field Day 3 (the demo occurs at timestamp 15:30 in the video). Keep in mind that this is a demonstration of a pre-released product so it is expected that throughput and functionality will change and likely increase when the product is available for customers in early 2013.

The test goal was to measure one client, one Access Point 802.11ac performance and leveraged Ixia’s IxChariot to generate UDP traffic over the air. The test was done in an open real world environment, so the achieved throughput is less than what would be expected in a clean RF environment typical of a benchmark test.

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Tags: 3600 module, 802.11ac, access point, aironet 3600, AP3600, application, bandwidth, broadcom, gigabit, IEEE, link-rate, mbps, spectrum, throughput, wireless, wireless standard, wlan