Location Deployment Guide

Table of Contents
Table of Contents ​2

Introduction ​3

How the Mist Location Works for Engagement ​3

Location Use Cases ​6

Best Practices ​8

Engagement ​9

AP Design ​11

Sample AP Designs ​18

Asset Visibility ​23

Enabling Asset Visibility ​24

Deployment Validation (The Four Steps) ​28

vBLE Details ​38

Location Deployment Mistakes ​38

Support ​39
 Introduction
Welcome to the Mist vBLE Deployment Guide. In this guide we learn about how Mist location
works, go over basic understandings of the Mist vBLE array, best practices for deploying
location, use cases, asset visibility and the four steps for location. This guide will also reference
certain sections back to the Mist support pages for easy access to additional information related
to the section.

Mist is the first company to introduce an enterprise-grade platform for

indoor BLE location services with groundbreaking features including a dynamic
BLE 16 antenna array integrated into Mist’s Access Points, machine learning in the
Mist cloud eliminating the need for expensive site surveys, and patented virtual
beacon (vBLE) technology. The Mist architecture is also unique in its ability to both
send and receive BLE signals, which makes it ideal for the following BLE services
(offered by Mist):

1. Contextual engagement services, such as wayfinding, alerts, and proximity

messaging via BLE
2. Operational efficiency applications, like asset & people visibility leveraging
3rd party BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy).

How the Mist Location Works for Engagement

Mist works off this idea of “Probability Surfaces” instead of triangulation. Where the more beams
your client hears from the Mist APs the more RSSI (​Received Signal Strength Indicator) ​data
there is for location engine to work with in creating a sum of probability surfaces, which provides
the best possible location accuracy in real time with sub second latency.

Essentially your mobile device, with the Mist SDK, listens to the BLE coming from the beams
from the Mist AP, once the Mist SDK receives the beams the SDK will then send the mobile
information to the cloud where location engine will calculate and respond back with an x,y
coordinate to your mobile device.
So the more beams your client sees from neighboring APs the more accurate your location will
be as these probability surfaces builds up. This leads into the machine learning aspect where
machine learning is taking in this RSSI data and changing the Path Loss Formula (PLF)
constantly, eliminating the need for site surveys.

Below is an example of the probability surface where the center of the red blob is the peak of
the surface and the highest probability of where you are and the blue is the least probability
where you can be.
When deploying for location you would want to follow the ​Best Practices and AP Design
section and make sure that your deployed APs are deployed in a way that encompasses the
user in the areas of interest for location. This is known as the Rubber Band Model, where the
idea is you want to be inside the “Perimeter” of your deployed APs for the best location
accuracy possible.

You want your ​Client (SDK/Asset) t​ o be enclosed inside the ​Rubber Band Model of the
deployed ​APs for the best location accuracy possible. Going outside the Band will decrease in
accuracy the further you go away.
Note: ​Assets are the opposite when comparing to an SDK client. Instead of the SDK client
listing and receiving RSSI information from the beams of the Mist vBLE array assets instead
beacon out and the APs receive RSSI information from the when the assets beacon based on
how many beams were heard from the asset at the time. Please see “​Asset Visibility​” section
for more in depth details.

Location Use Cases

There are primarily three uses cases when it comes to deploying for location, which are
Way-finding, Proximity Messaging with Virtual beacons and Asset Visibility.

Wayfinding​ is the most common use case revolves around having a location estimate stick to a
way-finding path as the user walks towards a destination. This is very similar to google maps
but for indoor solutions.

Blue Dot & virtual beacons for proximity messaging​ is all about an accurate location
estimate in an open xy space. The blue dot is your SDK client where the location engine is
essentially voting on your location from neighboring Mist APs and building up a probability
surface of where you are at a given location. This in turn gives the user free motion to move
around and can be able to trigger a push notification when approaching a virtual beacon.
Asset Visibility​ is a location feature where the Mist AP can operate in either a concurrent
transmit / receive mode or a dedicated receive only mode, listening to any device transmitting
within the vicinity of the deployed Mist APs such as smart watches, fitbits, headsets as well as
off the shelf 3rd party BLE asset tags. The basic principle applies for “assets” as they do for
SDK clients, where the more RSSI information is sent to location engine in the Mist cloud the
more accurate the location estimate.
 Best Practices
● Mounting the AP
○ The Mist APs must be mounted on the ceiling with the LED facing toward the
ground. Please avoid putting APs on the walls (vertical mounted), on top of
objects, inside of objects, or having the LED facing up towards the ceiling.
○ You cannot point the AP up towards the ceiling because the system assumes the
AP is always facing down. Doing so will result in your location being flipped and
inaccurate.
○ Link to ​Hardware Installation​ guide for AP61, AP41, AP21 and BT11
https://www.mist.com/support/

● AP Height
○ Placing APs between 8 to 15 feet (2.5 to 4.5 meters) high is highly
recommended. Higher heights will work as well, and will require potentially more
density of APs to deliver high accuracy, depending on the environment and use
case.
○ Keep in mind though the higher the APs are deployed the more their directioanlity
is lost and becomes more like an omni regardless if your client can hear all the
beams.

● Line of Sight
○ Line of sight from your device to at least 2 APs is highly recommended.
○ It is best to place the AP at junction points whenever possible. This will help
maximize both coverage and line of sight for corners.
○ Deploying Mist APs above ceilings is not recommended but it is highly
recommended to contact a Mist SE (​[email protected]​) for guide for non-line of
sight deployments.
○ In-room accuracy will require an AP being inside said room to guarantee location
accuracy.

● AP Distance from other APs

○ Deploy APs between 25 to 50 feet (8 to 15 meters) from neighboring APs for
optimal coverage in a spread out offset fashion.
○ Keeping each AP with line of site of the other neighboring APs is highly
recommended.
○ Keep in mind, all you are doing is blanketing an area with BLE energy. Don’t
spread the APs too far apart, as the location error on the edges of the coverage
range degrades quickly.
 ○ If APs are too far from each other, then we call the non-coverage area in
between the APs “no man's land” -- meaning there is no optimal coverage.
Location accuracy will suffer if a device is in “no man's land.”

● AP Coverage Range
○ The APs have a BLE coverage range of around 2,500 square feet (15 meters).
○ Keep in mind that the further away you are from an AP, the lower the RSSIs are
from the device the less your accurate your location will be. This is why having
APs within line of sight of neighboring APs -- and spreading them out to create an
overlap of BLE coverage -- helps improve accuracy; when a client moves further
away from one AP, in turn, it moves closer to another.

● APs must be on floor plan:

○ An AP must be placed on the map for location to happen. APs that are powered
up but not placed on a map will be ignored for location.
● APs in rooms
○ For any location accuracy to be guaranteed in room an AP must be placed in the
middle of the room.

Engagement
How to enable engagement for location services for SDK clients and turning the vBLE arrays for
all Mist APs on a site level.

Please Note: This feature is only available if you purchased the location license. If you didn’t
purchase the license then Engagement will be disabled until a license is purchased.
1. Go to “Organization” and select “Site Configuration”

1. Select the site of interest

 1. Select “Engagement” under “Bluetooth based Location Services”
a. This will enable the vBLE array on ​ALL​ Mist APs for the selected site

AP Design

In this section we will go over an example of where to deploy Mist APs and in turn how many
APs you need for you deployment based on a customers ​Use Case​ and following ​Best
Practices​. This will be a step-by-step process, which should be simple and straightforward.
Even though the AP designs might vary depending on certain use cases the same principle
applies, follow ​Best Practices​ and the ​Rubber Band Model.

Important Note:​ ​Make sure to scale the map properly before starting your AP design. Please
review the first section of “The Four Steps” titled “Scale Floor Plan”. You may also check the
link
(​https://support-portal.mist.com/hc/en-us/articles/234751268-Loading-and-scaling-floor-plan-and
-adding-AP-s)​ as well. This needs to be done first as the correct scale of the map will give the
most accurate calculations for the BLE coverage range.
 Adding vBeacons to simulate AP placement:

1. Go to the scaled map of interest you want to do the AP design

2. Click on ​Beacon and Zones
3. Click ​Add vBeacon
4. Add a couple vBeacons on the map (These will be used as a simulated AP placement),
follow the ​Best Practices​ section for AP placements.
○ You may have noticed that there is one vBeacon is a room. If you require any for
of location for in-room accuracy you must put an AP in the room.
5. Click the ​grey square​ to select all recently created vBeacons and edit them at once
6. and then click ​Edit​.

Showing what the way-finding paths would look like with the current AP placement above
with regards for BLE coverage
 Editing selected vBeacons

1. Once editing the vBeacons click “Transmit Power”.

2. Select the scale and move it till it says “17dBm”
3. Make sure the power is set to 17dBm and that the “near” value is 14.3 meters (you only
want to focus on the “near” measurement)
4. Once done click “Save”
 Viewing edited vBeacons placements and coverage range

1. You should now be able to see your simulated AP placement and BLE coverage
2. You want a good amount of BLE ovlerplay as the helps with the provide adequate
coverage throughout your deployment
3. If you don’t see the red circles for the BLE coverage range don’t worry. In the top right
hand corner of the screen click the ​Hamburger Menu​, which will take you to the
Location Settings
 Location Settings

1. Once in the location settings look for ​Show Virtual Beacon Coverage
2. Select ​Show Virtual Beacon Coverage
3. Click the ​Cancel Icon​ in the top right hand corner to apply the settings
4. You should see the red circles
 Validating AP design

1. Once all said and done you can double check the distance between APs
2. Remember you want to place APs anywhere between 8 - 15 meters AP from each other
3. Select ​Ruler​ and click and drag from one AP to the next AP
4. In the top left hand corner you should see the length of the line you have created. Telling
you what the distance is in meters.

Congratulations you just did you first AP design. Once more familiar with this process it is a nice
method to quickly see how many APs would you need and where to put them and gives you a
sense of the density for deployments. It also is a nice way to visualisation seeing the BLE
coverage range as well.

Sample AP Designs
We will take a look at a couple of sample AP designs for each main use case, way-finding, Blue
Dot & virtual beacons for proximity messaging and assets.
Way-finding
This is for the use case of wayfinding, where SDK clients locations will snap to a path (blue
lines) as the client walks the main paths.

Blue Dot & virtual beacons for proximity

This is for the use case of blue dot & virtual beacons for proximity, where the SDK client can
prompted up a message through push notifications to alert users when entering a certain area.

Asset Visibility
This is for the use case of asset visibility, where the Mist APs passively listen to the RSSI signal
of BLE devices.

Asset Visibility
Here we will go through how to set up for “Asset Visibility” and understand some basic principles
of “BLE clients” aka asset tags / beacons as well as tag vendors and configurations.
Figure 1 s​ hows the difference between and SDK and BLE client in how RSSI information is
collected, same idea as SDK clients, the more beams heard the more RSSI information is used
to give the best location accuracy.

Please Note: This feature is only available if you purchased the asset license. If you didn’t
purchase the license then Asset Visibility will be disabled until a license for assets is purchased.

Figure 1:
 Enabling Asset Visibility
1. To enable the “Asset Visibility” feature go to your “Organization” and select “Site
Configuration”.

2. In “Site Configuration” select which site you would like to enable “Asset Visibility” for.
3. In your selected site under “​Bluetooth based Location Services” you can enable “Asset
Visibility” by simply clicking on the check box and pushing “Save” once done.

4. Once saved you will be able to see “Newly Discovered Assets” in BLUE and “Name
Assets” in GREEN on the “location live view” of your selected floor plan.

5. You can you also go to “BLE Clients” in the “Clients” section tab to view a list of all
“Newly Discovered Assets” and “Named Asset”.
Tag Vendors / Configuration:
● Tag Vendors:
○ Any tag vendor will work with Mist as long as the APs are able to detect the tags.
Tag vendors we've worked with the most;
■ Blue vision, kontakt.io and Radius Networks.
● Tag / Beacon Configuration:
○ For configuration for both tags and beacons we recommend setting tags to
anywhere between 1000 - 500 ms interval rates and 0 dBm for power.
Notes:
● APs transmitting / Receiving:​ Please be aware that when both “Engagement” (aka
APs transmitting) and “Asset Visibility” (aka APs receiving) in the “​Bluetooth based
Location Services” under “Site Configuration” ​are enabled the AP is in a coextensive
state of transmitting / receiving, meaning you are able to do both “SDK clients” and
“Assets” simultaneously.
○ For more optimal performances for “Assets” disable “Engagement”. This will put
the AP into a pure receive mode, which means the APs have more time to scan
the room.
● Bluetooth on Phones/Devices acting as a beacon: ​Please note that when a phone's
Bluetooth is enabled that does “NOT” mean the phone is advertising itself as a beacon.
Phones do not typically transmit at the same rate as a beacon does, and only really
receive unless explicitly told to do so. Hence the need many, if not all, of the times to
have a 3rd party application on the phone to be able to perform that intended function of
turning a phone into a beacon.
○ Link to Bluetooth LE Resource Center
https://www.mist.com/bluetooth-le-resources/
● Granular accuracy​: If you need more granular accraucy for assets (1 - 3 meters) follow
the instructions for ​Best Practices​ with the exception of the AP deployment being more
densely deployed::
○ AP Height
■ Placing APs between 8 to 10 feet (2.5 to 3 meters) high.
○ Line of Sight
■ Tag must have line of sight to at least 4 APs.
○ AP Distance from other APs
■ Deploy APs between 25 to 32 feet (8 to 10 meters) from neighboring APs
for optimal coverage in a spread out offset fashion.
○ Rubber Band Model: Make sure to follow the rubber band mode in that your
tags are within you AP deployment.

Deployment Validation (The Four Steps)

For any location deployment, these four steps shown below should be verified before
proceeding with using location. After correctly performing these four steps, the system is then
ready for machine learning to find an PLF (path loss model) for the area that the Mist AP is
deployed and different client device models. The four steps are as follows:

1. Scale Floor Plan

○ To scale the floorplan,
i. Select “Live View” from the “Location” side navigation menu

ii. Select the site and floor plan you want to scale
iii. Click on “Setup floor plan”

iv. Select the “Set Scale” option

 v. Scale the floor plan and push done

○ Scale can be thought of as the foundation for your location accuracy. If, for
example, a room is 10 meters long but you scale the room to be 1000 meters
long in the system, then when you physically walk 5 meters, the system UI would
only reflect you as moving one inch. This gives the false impression that location
is broken, but location has actually placed you correctly based on the provided
scale. Thus, it is crucial that your floorplan is scaled properly.
○ One trick if you don’t know the scale of a floor plan is to look for a standard door
and scale that door to be 0.91 meters (3 feet). This should scale the floor plan
appropriately.

2. Set AP Placement
○ To place an AP on the floor plan
i. Select “Live View” from the “Location” side navigation menu
ii. Select the site and floor plan you want to scale

iii. Unlock the floorplan for editing

 iv. Select the AP from the “Available APs” option

v. Drag and drop the AP on the floor plan

○ AP placement is simple yet important. In the UI, just drag and drop the AP onto
the floor plan where the AP is deployed in the real world. For example, let's say
you have a 10 x 10 meter room and physically deploy the AP in the center of the
room. You would do the same in the system by placing the AP on the middle of
the floorplan in the UI. If you physically move that AP to the upper-right corner of
the room, then you would also need to update the system by moving that AP to
the upper-right corner of the floorplan.
○ It is important to ensure that the MAC address of the AP placed in the system
matches that of the AP in the physical deployment. If the APs and their
placements do not match, this will give the false impression that location is
broken; the system will show your location in a different area on the floor plan.
3. Set AP Orientation
○ Setting the AP orientation (rotation)
i. Select “Live View” from the “Location” side navigation menu

ii. Select the site and floor plan you want to scale

iii. Click “unlock for editing”, select the AP you want to set the orientation,
and rotate the small green dot on the outer ring of the selected AP. You
can also select all APs and set all selected APs orientation in the “edit”
 section for a quick mass orientation edit.

○ AP orientation is a crucial part of location accuracy. Wherever the AP’s LED is

pointing in relation to the map's perspective, that AP’s orientation (or rotation) in
the UI must match its orientation in the real world. If done incorrectly, the location
engine will place your client’s location somewhere else.
○ Please note your map does not have to face true north. The easiest way to
determine the AP’s orientation is to find a reference point on the floorplan when
comparing the UI with the real world.
○ When setting the orientation in the UI, make sure the small green dot points in
the same direction as the AP’s LED. A good tip is to orient all of the AP’s in a
common space in the same direction, as this makes it easier to spot problems
down the road.
○ Imagine drawing a line from the Mist logo towards the LED and continuing
drawing that line past the LED. This is your imaginary line of where the LED is
facing.

4. Set AP Height
○ Setting the AP Height
i. Select “Live View” from the “Location” side navigation menu.

ii. Select the site and floor plan you want to scale.
 iii. Select the AP you want to set the height and click “Quick Edit”

iv. You can now change the height of the AP

○ AP height is the last step in the initial deployment process and is important since
the location engine takes this into account for machine learning.
○ By default, we set all APs to 2.75 meters (9.02231 feet). Make sure to set the
AP’s height appropriately in the “Quick Edit” section of the Live View.
All in all, the message is simple; the system and real world deployments must match as closely
as possible. They do not necessarily have to be perfect, but the closer the UI deployment
reflects reality, the better location accuracy will be. After this, machine learning will continuously
adjust and find a more optimal path loss formula (PLF) that works for your deployment. If you
find your location experience is not ideal revisit these four steps. The majority of location issues
comes from an incorrect AP setup. Below is a link to a video on how to do the setup for these
four steps.

vBLE Details
● Mist vBLE Array
○ The Mist AP has a vBLE array, which consists of a 16 Directional Antennae
Bluetooth Array. Eight ​unique antennas are reflectors to help with directing the
BLE energy outward away from the AP, and the other eight ​unique antennas are
directional antennas that point in eight different directions, transmitting BLE
energy in a flashlight-like fashion.
○ To better visualize this, imagine a flashlight shining narrow beams in eight
different directions.
● AP Directional Beam Angle
○ The best directionality comes from about a 45 degree angle, with the AP’s LED
facing down towards the ground. Anything below 45 degrees acts more like a null
radius, since you are directly under the AP at 0 degrees.
○ This is why the higher an AP is placed, the null radius under the AP increases
and the RSSI from the client decreases.
● AP Beams
○ Each AP is transmitting on eight ​unique​ directional beams.
○ The Mist SDK on the device hears these beacons from the beams, and sends the
RSSI and device sensor information back to the Mist cloud. Through either wifi or
cellular.
○ The more beams your device hears the more accurate your location will be, as
there is more data for the location engine to make a better location estimate.

Location Deployment Mistakes

● DO NOT install APs on the ground or on any object with the AP facing up or down.
● DO NOT install APs on the walls with the AP vertical to the wall.
○ You can install APs horizontally on walls as long as the LED is still facing down.
● DO NOT install two or more APs 1 meters from each other.
○ This is just poor use of coverage.
● DO NOT install APs near or up against metal, glass or concrete.
 ● DO NOT install APs more than 15 feet high.
○ If you do need to install APs more than 15 feet high please contact Mist (
[email protected]​) to have a Mist SE help advise as certain uses cases may
require more dense AP deployment for higher ceiling deployments.
● DO NOT install APs above the ceiling.
○ Only certain use cases call for this, which would require advice from a Mist SE
(​[email protected]​) on how to best deploy for such a use cases.

Support
If you have any questions that were not answered in this guide or you have a very specific
question that this guide did not cover you can go to our support page and email to submit a
ticket. Below are two ways you can submit a ticket.

1. You can email your questions at ​[email protected]

2. You can go to ​https://support-portal.mist.com/hc/en-us/requests/new