Cisco DNA Spaces is an application to support location services.
These are so much more than just a dot on a map type applications these days - full features, task oriented applications using location are now hot property - and the ROI that goes along with them proves the point.
In this second part of our exploration of what DNA Spaces can do, we'll take a deeper dive look into the applications that DNA Spaces supports.
Our introductory blog into DNA Spaces helped to set the scene on what DNA Spaces is - let's have a quick recap.
(If you're more interested to hear about Cisco DNA Center, take a look at our page on How DNA Center helps solve your top 5 biggest networking issues).
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What is DNA Spaces?
Cisco DNA Spaces forms part of the Cisco DNA eco system. Along with DNA Center and the concepts of Software Defined Access, Cisco DNA Spaces is all about getting the most out of your ICT investment.
Location in Wi-Fi has been an advantage - the ability to locate Wi-Fi clients on a map, associate details with their MAC address (eg a device name, type and owner) starts opening up the possibility of task based, location assisted applications.
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DNA Spaces Applications
I've borrowed the following section from my first blog on DNA Spaces - this helps set the scene on the DNA Spaces applications - with the more detailed sections below this one.
Cisco has a good blog on DNA Spaces and Indoor IoT Services (I've borrowed a couple of the images below), which is worth a look for some background.
DNA Spaces has a marketplace. Like many applications these days where you can plug in third party widgets and applications, DNA Spaces also offers this.
This is the really valuable business aspect - you can take whatever location systems you have and blend those in to DNA Spaces and make use of whatever existing location beacons and tags you have, right there inside the DNA Spaces application.
This means that you can make use of your Cisco Location data and the DNA Spaces front end and snap in applications.
There's quite a wide range, with a few shown below:
Let's take a quick look at a couple of these (they need a blog in their own right, but a quick overview is hopefully useful)
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Real Time Location Services
We've set up DNA Spaces to track Workstation on Wheels (WOWs) around the hospital campus and can trigger alerts if they leave the hospital.
The same is true for bariatric beds (or hospital beds in general) - attach a location tracking tag (we've used CenTrak), along with location beacons and you have the ability to show a bed on the DNA Spaces map as automatically available just because it was left in the bed store.
Task Management
Task Management is all about triggering events. To trigger the events we need to take in some form of telemetry - which could be a location, a static device, a device that's started to move, a temperature detection or water leak (there's a bunch more).
The trigger is used to trigger an action. So - for example - a hospital drug fridge goes out of temperature range. A trigger is activated and an SMS text is sent via DNA Spaces to alert a pharmacist.
There's a lot of use cases - wheelchairs are left stationary for four hours, so are probably not in use. Send an email with the location to pick them up. An infusion pump leaves a hospital ward where it belongs - trigger an alert for the staff to locate and return the device.
The task management use cases are unlimited.
COVID Applications
For DNA Spaces, COVID Applications allow the end user to set the number of allowed devices in a space and trigger if this threshold is exceeded. DNA Spaces can count Wi-Fi devices and people count using Meraki cameras, to increase accuracy.
This also allows you to track how people are using the space and if overall visitor numbers are changing over time.
Wayfinding
Many people need to find their way around a hospital and patients getting lost on the way to an appointment is a costly exercise. There is of course a better way, in the form of way finding.
Traditional wayfinding relies on overhead signs to point you in the right direction. In the case of Mazemap though, you have an application that can locate you on the map and show you on an active map on your phone how to get where you need to go.
Here's the scenario - you arrive at a small kiosk with a tablet at the main hospital entrance. Enter your location you want to go, a QR code is shown. You scan the QR code and this takes you to the DNA Spaces application and brings up the maps with your location and the information for you to get to your destination.
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Cisco DNA Spaces Summary
There's a lot more to explore in DNA Spaces than we have run through in this blog. The suite of applications take your Wi-Fi network to the next level, with the use of location data, you can really start to get greater value from your Wi-Fi network, enabling time saving and efficient processes and procedures.
We've got some great use cases we can run through - if you're interested to hear more about DNA Spaces and interested to look at an install, drop us a line at sales@iptel.com.au
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