When Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas set sail from Helsinki on its maiden voyage in December 2009, the cruise ship offered its passengers more than two 40-foot-long surfing pools, a zip line, a 30-foot-tall rock-climbing wall and a host of other amenities. The 1,200-foot-long vessel—the world's largest cruise ship—also provided its customers with an rfid-based application that offers families and other groups a way to track their members.The application employs Ekahau's real-time locating system (RTLS), which includes Wi-Fi-based RFID tags in badges or wristbands, and an Apple iPhone, which can access each tag's location on its screen displaying a map of the ship. The location information is transmitted to the iPhone via the ship's existing Wi-Fi nodes. The system also enables the iPhone user to send an alert when needed, to those wearing the wristbands.
Royal Caribbean installed a Wi-Fi network of nearly 1,000 access points on the ship, with plans for a host of wireless services intended to improve passengers' experience on board—all under the name Royal Connect. The iPhones offer the passengers the ability not only to locate their party members, but also to make reservations at restaurants and spas by calling or sending messages to those merchants, track daily activities by accessing daily postings of those activities, and receive notifications when, for example, their table is ready at a restaurant. The software that manages data for these services was provided by DeFi Global, located in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Ekahau provides a Wi-Fi-based tracking solution with tags that could transmit a unique ID number to the vessel's existing Wi-Fi nodes. Ekahau's software determines each tag's location within 10 to 15 feet, based on signal strength and data related to tag movement, in order to predict in which direction that individual is moving. The tag's ID number, along with its location, is forwarded to the DeFi Royal Connect software, running on a back-end server. According to John Shoemaker, Ekahau's VP of worldwide sales, the DeFi software receives that ID number and forwards the tag's location—and, thereby, that of the individual wearing it—to the appropriate iPhone.
