Supported Standards


Supported standards are iBeacon and Eddystone. iBeacon is slighly better supported, as the whitelisting feature works only for iBeacons. Other standards will be recorded during mapping, but are not used during positioning. IndoorAtlas can utilize any beacon hardware as long as they are compatible with the above-mentioned standards.



Configuration


To ensure long battery lifetime, easy maintenance and proper performance, it is very important that beacons are configured correctly and all configurations are documented carefully.


Beacon Type


Since IndoorAtlas supports both iBeacon and Eddystone standards, you can freely choose between these two. If you have no preference, we recommend iBeacon as it has better support on iOS and IndoorAtlas supports whitelisting for iBeacon UUIDs.


Advertisement Data

  • Use the same proximity UUID for all your organization’s beacons.
  • Set a unique major code for each Floor.
  • Set a unique minor code for each beacon under same the major code


Example configuration:

  • Building A floor 1 has major 11
  • Building A floor 2 has major 12
  • Building B floor 1 has major 21
  • Building B floor 2 has major 22



Note!
If you order pre-configured beacons and you don’t know how many beacons are placed in each floor, you can use a unique major/minor combination for every beacon. This makes harder to know which beacon is in which floor but it does not affect positioning accuracy. Using pre-configured beacons can save significant amount of time during installation.



Advertisement Frequency and Transmission Power


Recommended settings

  • Use advertisement interval of 500ms.
  • Use transmission power -8dBm. In very large open areas, use -4dBm.


The most suitable beacon transmission power depends on the environment, beacon type, it’s beam form and the beacon placement. A rule of thumb:

  • Beacon should be heard 15 - 30 meters away unobstructed
  • Beacon RSSI (signal strength) should be > -75dB when standing nearby the beacon