The Challenges You Face
Getting started
You heard about the beacon revolution, you have caught on to the excitement of the trend, and the possibilities it holds. You have thought of a brilliant use case for your business, which will provide real value to your customers. You have supported it with strong business reasoning. You even have a wizard application development team. The only thing left is to launch the service as quickly as possible. You understand that time to market is crucial. However, prior to launching your winning app. there are just a few challenges to overcome:
Choosing the right beacon HW to match your app. requirements
Since Apple launched its iBeacon global protocol at the end of 2013, many hardware manufacturers have developed different types of beacons. These beacons are different in their specifications such as battery life, signal transmission power, network topology approaches and varying environmental factors algorithms, which considerably influence the performance of each beacon type. Choosing the right beacon hardware influences the deployment time as well as the operational costs.
Deployment of beacons
Plan rather than guess. Deployment should be based on network planning and optimization rather than on trial and error. Adjustment of beacon transmission power, based on the manufacturer default values will work poorly in small areas, where beacons’ transmission-zone overlaps. Trying to adjust the beacon power level without understanding radio frequency transmission may result, in a lengthy, inefficient and faulty deployment. Deployment methodology is important since most physical places are different. A coffee shop, a large hall or a store with lots of metal shelves affect the beacon performance differently.
Maintenance procedures
Keep track of the firmware updates, battery life, beacon failure and plan beacon procurement based on future needs.