Thursday, May 21, 2020

Juniper's Mist AI-powered Wi-Fi offers contact tracing

Mist Systems' AI-powered enterprise Wi-Fi is now supporting key workplace business continuity safety tasks like proximity tracing, journey mapping and hot zone alerting as part of strategic contact tracing and social distancing initiatives.

Juniper said that by using Mist access points and cloud services in conjunction with Wi-Fi and/or BLE-enabled devices such as phones and badges, enterprises can now support:

  • Proximity tracing - If an individual identifies as COVID-19 positive (or is experiencing symptoms), enterprises can quickly identify and notify other employees, guests or customers that may have been in close proximity to that individual while onsite. 
  • Journey mapping - Customers can view historical traffic patterns and dwell times for employees who have reported testing positive for COVID-19 – from the moment they were onsite to departure. Journey mapping can identify high-traffic hot zones so customers can take safety measures such as reconfiguring workspaces and deploying additional cleaning efforts.  
  • Hot zone alerting - By looking at the quantity of devices and locations in specific areas, enterprises can disperse or divert traffic away from congested areas with real-time, location-based alerting. They can also view trends over time to identify certain areas for proactive measures.

“Employee health and wellness have always been a key part of business continuity planning, but now more than ever enterprises are looking to IT for help complying with OSHA, ADA, CDC and other guidelines,” said Sudheer Matta, VP of Products at Mist. “The Mist architecture provides unique value by combining Wi-Fi with patented virtual BLE technology, supported by a 16 antenna array that is bi-directional and minimizes the need for extra infrastructure hardware like battery-powered beacons. In addition, Mist recently launched a Premium Analytics service that provides unique insight from a variety of data sources to optimize end-user/client experiences and identify trends that can assist customers with workplace safety.”