August 3, 2007 - RICHMOND, IN - Belden enhanced the Belden Wireless Solution to include integrated asset tracking and Active RFID (radio frequency identification) capabilities. These capabilities are provided through a mutual, non-exclusive agreement with AeroScout of Redwood City, CA, the industry's leading provider of Wi-Fi- based Active RFID solutions. Through this enhancement, Belden can now offer its Wireless Solution customers a proven reliable source for wireless asset tracking and other enterprise visibility options - such as Real-Time Locating Systems (RTLS) and Active Radio Frequency Identification (Active RFID) solutions.
This enables customers of the Belden Wireless Solution to track the location and status of high-value assets in real-time, reducing loss and theft and improving operational efficiency. The Belden Wireless Solution is an interference-free wireless LAN system designed to provide for the seamless convergence of data, video, Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWLAN), and now location as well. Commenting on these new services, Bill Miller, Belden's Director of Marketing, Adjacent Technologies, says: "With the rapid adoption of wireless networking today - in industrial, warehousing, government and healthcare facilities, as well as offices - there is an increased demand for the integration of RFID- based asset tracking, inventory control, and RTLS technology.
Belden Wireless customers contracting with AeroScout for these applications can be confident of their systems' performance, reliability and seamless compatibility." AeroScout's award-winning asset tracking and visibility solutions use standard Wi-Fi wireless networks to accurately locate and manage assets, equipment and people in multiple environments. By utilizing Wi-Fi standards and Active RFID tags with a lightweight "beaconing" communications method, AeroScout solutions add minimal incremental cost and cause no disruption to a communications network. Applications include tracking of materials handling equipment, work-in-process inventory, shipping containers and medical equipment.
Both Belden and AeroScout have performed extensive testing on product pairings to ensure their total compatibility and interoperability. The Belden Wireless Solution features a distinctive architecture that is fundamentally different from that of standard WLANs, which use cell-based technologies requiring complex RF Cell Planning to avoid co-channel interference. Belden's Wireless Solution is a Layer-2 Edge solution with a unique Channel Blanket topology to allow each radio channel to be used everywhere, at every access point, thereby creating blankets of continuous wireless coverage with no roaming latency or co-channel interference problems. High throughput is achieved even when cell traffic is high and full compliance with IEEE 802.11a/b/g protocol and security standards is maintained.
About Belden
Belden is a leader in the design, manufacture, and marketing of signal transmission solutions for data networking and a wide range of specialty electronics markets including entertainment, industrial, building management and aerospace applications. Belden has manufacturing facilities in North America, Asia and Europe as well as distribution centers in the U.S., Canada, Singapore, Australia and The Netherlands. A majority of Belden's manufacturing, engineering and support functions are registered to the International Organization for Standardization.