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SCHOOL OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (INFOCOMM)

________________________________________________________________ Subject : Overseas Industrial Placement Programme:

Cisco Systems, Cisco Express in Vietnam Customized User Experience With Locality Detection.

Supervisor : Mr. Ng Kee Way (Cisco Customer Briefing Centre)

Mr. Simon Eng (Cisco Express, Vietnam) Liaison Officer : Mr. John Fung Prepared by : Mr. Li Minyong, Davis (063693H) Duration : 23rd March 2008 – 1st June 2008 ________________________________________________________________

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Summary/Abstract  The Overseas Industrial Placement Programme (OIPP) in Cisco Systems had been a unique experience for me. My OIPP begins in a state-of-the-art Customer Briefing Center (CBC) in Singapore that showcases the latest innovations in Internet Protocol (IP) networking technology. 1 I was also given the privilege to extend my contract with Cisco Systems to travel to Vietnam, Hanoi. Only a selected 2 out of the 4 interns went for the trip.

The first part of my OIPP was spending a short but fruitful period of 12 weeks developing a solution to showcase emerging technologies and their flexibility to incorporate various existing wireless technologies like Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). Detailed project documentation was produced because other regional CBCs were also interested in our innovative project.

Specifically, my project team and I developed a solution that involves customizing user experience in CBC with the technologies of Digital Media System, RFID and many others which would be covered in details in this report.

This project had already been implemented and is working in Singapore Customer Briefing Centre since June 2008. The second part of my OIPP was to spend 1 week in Hanoi to train their local System Engineers in preparation for the Cisco Express Launch in Vietnam. 2

It was a resounding success as the launch was well done and the Cisco Express team and the training we provided for the Vietnam Engineers enabled them to take full ownership of Cisco Express Vietnam and in turn to push for higher sales for Cisco Systems Asia Pacific region.

Quan Ngua stadium (Launch location for Cisco Express Vietnam.)

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Acknowledgements I would like to take this opportunity to thank the following people:

Nanyang Polytechnic for giving me a chance to gain industrial exposure and helping me to maximize my potential.

Mr Joseph Lee, Manager, Sales Business Development (Asia HQ, Singapore) for seeing me as an over-comer and thus selected me to be a Cisco Intern.

Miss Tina Tong, the CBC Program Manager for taking care of us through our

internship program.

Mr Ng Kee Way, our project supervisor, who had always been an understanding and patient lecturer.

Mr Simon Eng, our supervisor during our Cisco Express Vietnam trip for taking care of us and always being a reliable source of support.

Mr Min Se Kim, Consulting Systems Engineer, for helping us whenever we needed help with ideas related to wireless technologies.

Mr Ong Poh Seng, Network Consultant, for offering his helping hand whenever we encounter any problem with our project.

Mr Lim Chong Sun, FrontLine’s Technical Consultant, in being helpful and patient to set-up and configure our Exciters and RFID Tags.

Mr Sean Ng, Singapore CBC Operations Engineer for being supportive for our project in CBC.

Mr Mervyn Kwok, NexLabs Software Engineer for advising us on Java coding.

Mr Ivan Khor, Cisco Associate Engineer and NYP graduate for supporting and teaching us on the network and technical issues.

Mr Kenneth Lum, pioneer of the RFID project and NYP graduate for guiding and handing over the project

Miss Rebecca Chen, previous project lead for the RFID project and NYP graduate for her feedback and video commentary.

 

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Objectives  

Report aims to:

• Document down and share my unique experience under the Overseas Industrial Placement Programme (OIPP) from Nanyang Polytechnic and Cisco Systems.

• To justify how the OIPP and Cisco Internship Programme had both positioned students like me to excel in 3 key areas: Education, Experience and Exposure.

The OIPP consists of two major components:

1) The project developed for Cisco Systems.

2) Cisco Express Network on the Wheels programme in Vietnam. Three parts in the report:

The first 30 pages of this report seek to explain and justify the values of the project done in Cisco System for the first 12 weeks of my Cisco internship.

The appendices A through L speak of additional and supportive information to

the above mentioned project.

Last but not least, Appendix M through P will speak about the experiences in Vietnam working under Cisco.

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List of Illustrations  Figures & Tables Page Fig 1: Sample usage of RFID wireless technology 1 Fig 2: Customer Briefing Centre 2 Fig 3: CBC’s Floor Plan 5 Fig 4: System Manager GUI 8 Fig 5: AeroScout Exciters 8 Fig 6: Power-Over-Ethernet Converter 9 Fig 7: AeroScout Active RFID Tags 11 Fig 8: Switched network with Straight RJ 45 (Yellow Cables) 17

Table 1: Requirements of the project 6

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1. Introduction

1.1 Background Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders. Below is an article on how RFID had been widely use for security, tracking and enhancing user experience. 3A recent T3 airport hotel called Crowne Plaza Changi Airport has recently came onto papers. Technology was extensively utilized. The $98 million hotel is the first in Singapore to use contactless access cards. Instead of the usual magnetic-stripe keycards, contactless ones are based on what is felt to be more secure radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. In Singapore, RFID is already used to track library books and is embedded in the ez-link payment card. To name a few more, the current uses of RFID in other parts of countries include passports, transportation payments, product tracking, lap scoring, animal identification, Inventory systems and even Human implants.

Fig 1: Sample usage of RFID wireless technology.

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1.2 Problems

Program Manager (PM) needs to watch for the Customer Briefing Centre

(CBC) entrance to look out for VIP’s arrival and hampers PM’s productivity.

PM is not aware of VIP’s current location and may disrupt the visit’s flow.

The need for the VIP to feel familiar and comfortable entering CBC.

VIP was not introduced to relevant Cisco solutions that might invoke

further sales.

VIP was not further convinced to purchase Cisco solutions after a visit.

Fig 2: Customer Briefing Centre

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1.3 Objectives

The project is to develop a location-based tracking system using RFID technologies on products from both Cisco Systems and their channel partners’ to:

Help CBC to allow their customers to see the potential of RFID technologies working for their industry by using Cisco Systems products and their channel partners’ products.

Convince customers to see the values of Cisco solutions advertised.

This project is not just a demonstration for CBC but it can be applied across different industries, particularly, Healthcare, Hospitality and Education (Museum).

Enhance VIP services by customizing their experience in CBC.

Upon detecting a customer, the Media Wall displays a customized welcome message with VIP name along with relevant advertisements from Cisco Systems and their channel partners.

Assist the Program Manager in the CBC to have an overview of where

a particular VIP is currently stationed at to facilitate event management.

Alert the Program Manager in the CBC upon arrival of a VIP so he/she

can become more productive.

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1.4 Solution Story Board

1. Upon VIP’s arrival, if he is a newly promoted VIP, he is handed with a RFID tag which can replace the usual identification sticker used in CBC.

2. When customer enters CBC, the RFID tag he carries will send a signal to the

project’s system to inform the Program Manager of the customer’s arrival via IP Phone.

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3. Media wall leveraging on the DMS technology will show:

Welcome message customized with his company’s logo. Relevant information like interests rates if customer is from a bank

industry. Relevant Cisco advertisements suited to VIP’s industry and interests.

Fig 3: CBC’s Floor Plan 4. Customer can be tracked by location to enhance user experience

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2. Project Description

2.1 Project Overview We need to integrate several key solutions together as a functional solution.

Wireless Components Cisco’s Digital Media System Cisco’s IP Telephony Web Technologies

o Java Server Pages Application (JSP) for server side programming. o Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) for graphical feel & interface. o Extensible Markup Language (XML) for IP Phone messages. o Java Applets for location tracking

Networking Components

2.1.1 Hardware/Software requirements

Hardware QTY/Model: Access points

1x AP 1010 2x AP 1240 with Antenna

Wireless LAN Controller 1x AIR -WLC 4402 Location Appliance 1x AIR - LOC 2710 Switch 1x Ca3550 – 24, Inline Power IP Phone 1x IP Phone 7970 RFID Tags 1x AeroScout RFID Tag Three HP Servers (H3) 3x (To install CUCM,WCS,XML server images) DMS Server (H3 Server) 1x (For media content storage) DMP 1x *RFID Tags 2x (AeroScout Active Tags) *Exciters (Loaned Equipment) 3x (AeroScout (Loaned)) *POE Switches (Loaned Equipment) 3x (AeroScout (Loaned)) *1 GB Ram 3x (DDR for H3 Servers)

Table 1: Requirements of the project Software:

VMWARE JSP Application capable of querying a RFID tag’s location through the

Location Appliance and pushing a video/image onto screen through the DMS and DMP and a notifying XML message on an IP Phone.

XML and HTML for notification messages. *Added in Phase 2

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2.2 Project Network Topology Below illustrates the network diagram that shows the backend integration of several key solutions mentioned.

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2.3 Wireless Components

2.3.1 Exciters The Exciters’ role in the project is to activate a de-activated tag that a VIP is holding. Once he is within the Exciter’s range, the tag will be ‘excited’ and begin transmitting at 10 seconds interval. RFID Tags can be configured to transmit at a specified regular interval. See section 2.3.2 on Tag Manager. Software You will need AeroScout Engine System Manager to configure your Exciters. The AeroScout engine is considered to be an equivalent of Cisco’s Wireless Control System software.

Fig 4: System Manager GUI Role Exciters can be configured to activate or deactivate a RFID tag within its proximity range. In simple terms, an Exciter can either be turning “ON” or turning “OFF” a RFID tag. In this project, our Exciters are configured with ranges from 1m to 3m.

Fig 5: AeroScout Exciters

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Network Connectivity Exciters DO NOT necessarily need to be connected to the network as its role in the project is mainly to turn ‘on’ a non-transmitting tag or ‘off’ a transmitting tag.

Powering up an Exciter

Our 3 loaned Exciters from FrontLine did not provide us with the power adapters as they are expensively made in Israel. Instead, we were provided with POE convertors that interface between a normal RJ45 cable and the normal power adapter to power up our Exciters.

2.3.2 AeroScout Tag Manager

Description Tag Manager is a Windows application installed using a standard setup wizard. Run the setup file from the installation executable file for Windows environment. It’s a standalone application designed to configure, program and activate AeroScout Tags.

Role Configuring tags consists of setting the transmission interval of the tag or its transmission channel. In addition, Tag Manager is used to activate and deactivate tags and to program stored messages on the tags.

In our project, we used tag manager software to deactivate the RFID tag for saving battery power. The tag will be activated again when it passes though the Exciter.

Although it was told that one of the Exciter is meant to de-activate a tag when it is near it, it does not. Therefore, we still require the Tag Manager to do this for you.

Fig 6: Power-Over-Ethernet Converter

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Software Version

AeroScout Tag Manager Version 3.00.04

2.3.3 Tag Activator (Documentation video provided) Connecting your Tag Activator to your laptop You will need a crossover cable to connect your laptop to the Tag Activator hardware.

IP Addresses

Connecting your Tag Activator to your laptop or PC requires you to set your Tag Activator IP address to the one specified on the Tag Activator. Tools->Options:

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2.3.4 RFID Tags In our project, we are using AeroScout Active RFID Tags. As mentioned earlier on, when the RFID tag had been activated by an Exciter, it will begin to transmit, the signal will be picked up by the Access Points and they carry the X,Y location of the transmitting tag. The Location Appliance 2700 will calculate the location of this tag by absorbing information from a minimum of 3 Access Points.

A RFID Tag can be configured to transmit at a 10-second interval, communicating in only channels 1,6,11 since Cisco Access Points uses these channels. Configuration of the RFID tags can be done by the Tag Manager software as shown earlier in Section 2.3.2

Fig 7: AeroScout Active RFID Tags

2.3.5 Access Points To track the location of a RFID tag or wireless device, we will need at least three Lightweight Access Points to form what is called Triangulation. The settings on the Access Points through the Wireless Control System are somewhat by default and we didn’t spend much time tweaking with their settings. All we need to do is to draft out a triangular wireless coverage after we did a wireless survey with wireless survey software. We did not use the better wireless survey devices which our System Engineer showed us because we didn’t possess such equipment. Wireless interferences inside Customer Briefing Centre is very great as there are many other Access Points. In Singapore Customer Briefing Centre, we can only deploy our Access Points inside the meeting rooms and thus our Access Points are mounted on the floor and not on the ceiling and partly affected their performance and coverage.

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The lightweight access points that we used were: Cisco Aironet 1240AG Series

Cisco Aeronet 1000 Series

Note: Floor planning, deployment and performance of Access Points will vary for different Customer Briefing Centre.

2.3.6 Wireless Control System In our project, we do not heavily depend or utilize the Wireless Control System. WCS is a tool to help you design, control, and monitor Cisco wireless networks from a centralized location, simplifying operations and reducing total cost of ownership. Cisco wireless LAN controllers can be managed individually without Cisco WCS using a command-line interface (CLI) or an intuitive Web interface. However, Cisco WCS is recommended when two or more Cisco wireless LAN controllers are deployed. With Cisco WCS, all Cisco wireless LAN controllers, lightweight access points and location appliances are centrally managed to deliver a complete wireless LAN system.

AeroScout Exciter symbolized by “Chokepoint” inside the WCS. However, the LOC and WCS did not recognize it as part of its wireless environment.

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2.3.7 Cisco 2700 Wireless Location Appliance (LOC) Model: 2700 (AIR-LOC2700-L-K9). The Cisco Wireless Location Appliance is a location solution that simultaneously tracks thousands of devices from directly within the WLAN infrastructure. Location appliance’s accuracy is at 10 meters within the RFID Tag for 90% of the time and 5 meters accuracy within 50% of the time. This poses a limitation for our project because the floor area our project deployed is small and meeting rooms are just next to one another. Read the Results and Findings section to work around this issue. The Cisco Location Appliance 2700 was said to work with AeroScout’s Exciters in the United States. However, with regards to the project, I did not see that the LOC and WCS recognize the AeroScout Exciters as a chokepoint after we connected the Exciter to our network.

2.3.8 Cisco 4400 Series Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) Cisco wireless LAN controllers communicate with Cisco Aironet access points over any Layer 2 or Layer 3 infrastructure. They communicate with Controller-based Access Points over any Layer 2 (Ethernet) or Layer 3 (IP) infrastructure using the Lightweight Access Point Protocol (LWAPP). By default, it takes a powered down RFID tag 20minutes to time out from the WLC’s database. Our project tracks the location and presence of a VIP and cannot allow the tags to mislead us that the VIP is still inside the CBC even after he has left.

Simply console into the WLC and change the setting as seen below. (Documentation video provided) (Cisco Controller) >config rfid timeout 60 Note: Minimum is 60 and its units are in seconds.

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2.4 Digital Media System

The DMS is a solution that comprises of products like Cisco Digital Media Encoders, Cisco Digital Media Manager, Cisco Digital Media Player and Cisco Video Portal. In this project, the Media Encoder, Media Manager and the Cisco Video Portal were not used.

2.4.1 Digital Media Player (Documentation video provided) The Cisco Digital Media Player (DMP) is a highly reliable IP-based hardware endpoint that handles digital media content display and playback--including high-definition live broadcasts and on-demand video, Flash animations, text tickers, and other Web content--across digital signs. DMP is a straight forward hardware. You will need to assign a workable IP address to it, connect it to your network and make sure it is powered up. DMP can display to a screen via RGB or HDMI cable. In this project, HDMI was utilized.

2.4.2 Digital Media Content Server In Cisco, it is called the DMS in short. It is basically a H3 server acting as our content storage server. It is currently not connected to the KVM so the only way to upload files into the server is via a remote controller, VNC. VNC means Virtual Network Computing. It is a remote control software which allows you to view and fully interact with one computer desktop. Have your laptop connected to the same network, share a folder, and access that shared folder from the DMS desktop GUI that you see through VNC.

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2.5 IP Telephony The project will utilize the technologies of IP Telephony to provide a notification complete with a ring-tone, picture & text message to the Program Manager upon arrival of the VIP. A normal analogue phone cannot do this to achieve the above mentioned notification objective. Our project uses the Cisco IP Phone 7971. When the XML Server’s address changes, you will need to re-authenticate the IP Phone and the server via the Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) 2.6 Web Technologies This section will explain the most common configurations for this project.

2.6.1 Java Server Pages Open and run the JSP: index2.jsp (For Cisco Internal Customers) index2a.jsp (For Education) index 2b.jsp (For Default Welcome Page) String DMPIP = "10.1.1.31"; DMP’s IP address String DMPUser = "Administrator"; User Name to log into DMP String DMPPassword = "Cisco123"; Password to log into DMP String IPPhone = "10.1.1.14"; IP address of the IP Phone so we can direct our XML messages to it String desiredMAC = "00:0c:cc:5c:25:7c"; The MAC address of the tag to activate a particular JSP. fout = new FileOutputStream ("C:/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/Applet Location Tracking/data.txt"); Location where the data.txt will be written that stores the the X,Y of the RFID Tag.

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String pushPage = "http://10.1.1.7/cisco_store/NYP.html"; NYP.html page that will be pushed through the DMP is at 10.1.1.7 (DMS Server) String status = Push2DMP.push (DMPIP, pushPage, DMPUser, DMPPassword); Method that log into the DMP and push the NYP.html pp.doPost("http://10.1.1.21:8080/combined/Education.xml","a", "a", IPPhone); Location of your DMS Server is at 10.1.1.21 at port 8080. XML to push to the IP Phone is Education.xml which is located inside the XML TomCat Server.

2.6.2 Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) The coding inside openingPage.html are usually the ones we don’t touch unless there is a need to revamp the look and feel of the starting page.

2.6.3 Java Applet and Re-calibration Open up LocationApplet.java is=new FileInputStream("data.txt"); Specifies the data.txt location. In this case, data.txt is in the same level of LocationApplet.java if ( (x<26.50 && x>26.00) && (y<4.50 && y>4.00)) { a=180; //If tag is inside Sentosa Meeting Room b=60; Taking the LOC’s X and Y range of the RFID Tag and recalibrate it by overwriting the X,Y with ‘a’ variable and ‘b’ variable. } if ((x<29.00 && x>26.50) && (y<6.00 && y>4.50)){ a=50; //If tag is inside Technical Briefing Room(TBR) b=210; g.drawImage(map,0,0,this); g.setColor(Color.blue); g.fillOval(a,b,30,30); //When drawing the circle dot, it draws according to the values inside ‘a’ and ‘b’ variable. Double click run.bat to launch the calibration applet.

2.6.4 Extensible Markup Language (XML) Open up Education.xml or whichever xml you want to display on the IP Phone. Open it with your favorite text-editing software. Edit the messages that are between <Text> and </Text>

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2.7 Networking Components

2.7.1 Cisco Catalyst 3550 Switch The Catalyst Switch is an essential backbone of the project. It is an island network of itself and communicating with other networks will need a Router. However, we did not make use of any router in this project to connect to the CBC’s main network. We simply use patched connections from CBC’s DMP to our network and everything will work as per normal. Leveraging on the DMS technology and patching techniques, we saved costs developing this project. See Appendix for the running configuration of the switch.

2.7.2 RJ45 Straight Cables We used RJ45 Straight Cables with Power-Over-Ethernet (POE) enabled.

Fig 8: Switched network with Straight RJ 45 (Yellow Cables) Power over Ethernet or PoE technology describes a system to transmit electrical power, along with data, to remote devices over standard twisted-pair cable in an Ethernet network. This technology is useful for powering IP telephones, wireless LAN access points, and other appliances where it would be inconvenient, expensive or infeasible to supply power separately.

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3. Results & Findings

3.1 Significant achievements During Phase 2, we had successfully addressed all the problems Phase 1’s prototype has faced. A. Slow update of RFID Tags. We solved this problem by accessing into the Wireless Lan Controller (WLC) through the console and changed the default RFID data timeout = 1200 seconds to 300 seconds. This will accurately reflect the number of RFID tags in the wireless environment. B. Inaccurate tracking of RFID tag The Wireless Control System showed inaccurate location of each RFID tag we allow the WCS to show. This is due to the overcrowding of Access Points(AP) inside Customer Briefing Centre, the position of our APs are restricted to be deployed and the inaccuracy of the Location Appliance(LOC) where its documentation stated: “Location appliance accuracy is at 10 meters within the RFID Tag for 90% of the time and 5 meters accuracy within 50% of the time.” This is the hardware limitation of the LOC and cannot change its hardware infrastructure and the proximity between different rooms is very small, therefore 10metre accuracy from the LOC will not reflect an accurate location. Mapping and re-calibrate solution: Appendix F However, the breakthrough comes if we were to re-calibrate the X,Y received from the LOC. We placed the active RFID tag in a particular room, observe its inaccurate X & Y readings, write a java applet that captures a certain range of the RFID tag readings and draw a dot to indicate the position of the RFID tag on the map of the applet. C. Premature playing of welcoming video Video wasn’t played based on the detection of a walking-in VIP. Video was played whenever the tag is activated and that happens when you power it up. This plays the welcoming message and the video prematurely and they cannot be viewed on time by the VIP.

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Exciters and RFID Tag Fine-Tuning With the fine-tuning of the RFID tag’s configuration and with the use of Exciters, this issue was resolved. The RFID Tag can be toggled activated and deactivated with the use of Exciters situated at a strategic place. Only when the VIP enters into the entrance, will the welcome message and the video will play. D. Works only with one RFID Tag Previous project only works with one RFID Tag and has no ability to change video or notification message upon detecting another different tag. Additional JSP, XML and HTML coding With additional condition checking and stringent tidying up of the coding, we can have 2 tags to show different messages for two different tags. This can be done for more tags but our project was only allocated 2 RFID tags. Our main objective is to show the ability of customization for each VIP holding different tag. F. Not integrated into Customer Briefing Centre’s network This is a problem if we want to demonstrate our solution to the customers. When customers enter the CBC entrance area, he will be warmly received with a customized welcome message and followed by a relevant advertisement video displayed on the LCD screen connected to the DMP. If we want to push our own content via CBC’s DMP, we need to call a different IP address and change our IP address scheme to fit into CBC because we weren’t provided with a router to route both switched networks. Digital Media System Solution It is made achievable with the concept of the Digital Media System which our project depends on. We do not need to change our entire IP address scheme as we thought we needed to. We simply connect our DMP physically into a port near the LCD screen and patch the connection to our switch.

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4. Conclusion After the project had been finalized and done within a short 3-month period, we had met all objectives and problems listed by the CBC Program Manager.

Χ Program Manager (PM) needs to watch for the Customer Briefing Centre (CBC) entrance to look out for VIP’s arrival and hampers PM’s productivity.

The Program Manager can now be notified via her IP Phone or wireless IP Phone upon the arrival of the VIP. The PM will not be pre-occupied with looking-out for the VIP or miss his/her appointment with the VIP.

Χ PM is not aware of VIP’s current location and may disrupt the visit’s flow.

The Program Manager can now check the current location of the VIP to help the PM keep track of the VIP’s schedule in CBC.

Χ The need for the VIP to feel familiar and comfortable entering CBC.

The CBC’s largest screen will show a welcome message directed to VIP’s name and his company name/institution. Thus making him feel at home.

Χ VIP was not introduced to relevant Cisco solutions that might invoke

further sales. The VIP can now be informed of the latest relevant Cisco solution

advertisements and this was done automatically by detecting the tag and not manually pushing the contents.

4.1 Summary After the project had been finalized and done within a short 3-month period, we had successfully addressed all the problems listed by CBC Program Manager. The challenges of this project are to take over the project from the previous batch. It is not easy to take over a half-done project and improving it to achieve all the objectives set out by the previous batch. Along the way, we had also added in our own objectives so as to guide our project progress. We were glad with our progress; the major limitation of the Location Appliance had forced us to think of a way to display a tag accurately which also corresponds to its physical location. We heard that this project had not been done before at the Asia Pacific level.

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The RFID project that was done by Cisco Asia Pacific Lead for Emerging Technologies Group was only to detect a passive RFID card via a RFID Card reader, displays the welcome page with the customer’s name. The above mentioned project lead, Mr Don Sim commented that we were the first to do a person-tracking project with Cisco LOC. Ideally; it was used to track assets in large warehouses. Our project is to be shown as a real demonstration and no longer an in-house demonstration for CBC internal customers. Interests and plans were also made to import this project to other regional CBC and also to the Cisco Express. 4.2 Project Planning

4.2.1 Overall Objectives Objective Duration: Understanding of the previous batch’s project 3rd Mar - 7th Mar Assigning of the roles to project members 10th Mar – 11th Mar Planning of the second phase for the project 12th Mar - 14th Mar Writing up a report for an update of the project plans for approval 17th Mar – 19th MarDevelopment of the project 24th Mar – 25th Apr Testing and debugging 28th Apr – 2nd May Enhance and fine-tuning 5th May – 9th May Evaluation 12th -16th May Final Report, Documentation and final demonstration 20th – 23rd May

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4.2.2 Detailed Tasks and Objectives

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4.3 Roles and Contribution

Li Minyong, Davis, Project Lead Project planning Location tracking recalibration Wireless LAN Controller Java Server Pages and XML Programming HTML Programming H3 Servers (VMWARE) Maintenance and Optimization Video Documentations Report Writing Appendix An Yang Wireless Control System Location tracking recalibration Multimedia for welcome page Video Editing Camera Man for video documentation Introduction of CBC with Macromedia Flash Map location concierge with Macromedia Flash Appendix

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4.4 Feedback (Actual video footage taken)

“I am from the pioneer batch of interns for this project, I feel that it is not easy for the second batch to complete this project and meet all requirements set out for the project. This is because I feel it is always not easy to pick up a previous project, understand it and improve on it. Especially there is always a gap in the Transfer of Information (TOI).

First of all, they are able to overcome the premature detection of the RFID tag and thus able to accurately detect a tag in a timely fashion with the exciters. Secondly, they have overcame the limitations of the Wireless Control System software where they came out with their own APPLET program to pin-point a customer's exact location. As the leader of the previous batch for this project, I am very glad that this project had already been completed and it is able to be showcased to the customers in CBC and be able to be further implemented to industries outside CBC. Thank you and all the best for your future endeavors.” (Script as heard from Video) Miss Rebecca Chen (MIT Class of 2008)

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"It's a good start in enhancing the solutions in CBC. This project helped to bring out more values in our location tracking with DMS technologies and demonstrated solutions that are applicable in real life. The interns showed great understanding of the technologies and were able to setup the solutions quickly." Mr Ong Poh Seng (Cisco Network Consultant with CISSP) "I was astonished on your dedication and ability to build real application and result. Your team’s understanding and adapting speed to the Cisco culture and technologies was surprisingly fast and you used Cisco Service-Oriented Network Architecture (SONA) into your customer application. I had already introduced your great solution to several other colleagues in Cisco Asia Pacific and this solution will be always one of the key solution to show to every customer that visits the Customer Briefing Centre in Singapore” Mr Kim Min Se (Consulting Systems Engineer)

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4.5 Future Development

4.5.1 Commercial Values The project is developed and demonstrated in a controlled environment which is the Customer Briefing Centre (CBC). However, it is not only meant to be demonstrated inside CBC for customers to be amazed about. Here are some practical examples on how this project can be used in the industry. A. Healthcare Sector

Imagine a patient has a dysfunctional heart that leads to a dysfunctional lung leaving him in a critical state. Naturally, apart from a general practitioner, the cardiologists and the pulmonary experts will come into the picture.

Since doctors nowadays have to carry a certain device with them, give for an example, they carry a tablet PC. Since they are already carrying a tablet PC, we could attach or integrate a RFID card into the tablet PC. A cardiologist walks into a ward, comes near the patient’s bed side, RFID tag is detected and the latest cardiology report appears in the cardiologist’s tablet PC through the existing wireless infrastructure. Consider another doctor who is a pulmonary expert, carries his own tablet PC with his own assigned RFID tag, come near the same patient’s bed side and pulmonary X-rays appears on his mobile tablet PC. Our project has clearly shown the ability of different tags triggering a different customized welcome message and video response to a walking-in customer. B. Tourism and Education Sector

Imagine a tourist or a secondary school student given a RFID tag at the Museum’s front desk. When he or she roams about freely with the tag at different museum spot, the Museum’s media wall will show different documentary video of a particular painting, statue, or a specific piece of history account.

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C. Finance Sector

In a scenario where VIP services are available to customers in a certain bank, he enters into the bank scheduled with an appointment to meet the Relationship Manager to discuss a major investment. Upon arrival, the customer will be greeted with his name on a central LCD screen, making him feel at home with the bank.

Front Desk officer receives an IP PHONE notification, calls the Relationship Manager and reminded him to prepare the contract and necessary documents. Meantime, while the VIP is waiting in a VIP lounge waiting room, the LCD screen inside the room will begin to flash relevant bank interest rates; latest finance plans that suits the nature and interest of the VIP. This could lead to more sales as the customer can be convinced of a particular bank service while waiting for the Relationship Manager to attend to him.

Note: These various scenarios are written by the project team with the industry exposure gained from the OIPP.

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4.5.2 Recommendations Since this project was birthed out of the Proof-Of-Concept lab, we were able to show the practical and example of the project. Although, it is still best for the programmer or technical person to change the settings, messages to be displayed. I would still recommend having a fool-proof Graphical User Interface to better help front-desk employees or anyone to customize the welcome message that includes VIP name and the company name. I will need an interface to associate different tag to different customer information in the customer database directory. In conclusion, in order to move this project from being a real-life demonstration to push sales for Cisco, the next step will be to use it for other industries by creating User Interfaces to allow users and our system to interact with one another.

4.6 Limitations The transmission of the data from the RFID to the server will cause 20 to 30 seconds latency depending on network traffic and device internal hardware. It needs at least 3 Access point (AP) to determine the exact location of the RFID tag. 4 Access Points would increase it accuracy but this may or may not be ideal due to the already over-crowded Access Points. The previous time with 4 APs, the accuracy of improved to about 2-3metres, still not very ideal for a small place like CBC.

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5. References

1 News@Cisco, Cisco Opens S$3 million Customer Briefing Center in Singapore,

<http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/global/asiapac/news/2007/pr_02-27.html> (27 February 2007) 2 Training & Events, Vietnam agenda, <http://www.cisco.com/web/VN/learning/ciscoexpress/agenda.html> 3

“T3 airport hotel shuns ‘contact’.” Digital Life 29 Apr. 2008: pg 21. Cisco Systems, Cisco Aironet 1000 Series, <http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6306/index.html> (10 September 2007) Cisco Systems, Cisco Products and Services, http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products (1992-2008) Cisco Express Vietnam Day1 to Day 7 photographs, <http://davisli.multiply.com/photos>

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6. Appendices

Appendix Topic Page A FAQ on Wireless Control System (WCS) 33 B FAQ on AeroScout devices 33 C FAQ on JSP Application 35 D Switch Running Configurations 36 E Project Solution Start-Up Procedure 40 F Location Applet 41 G Accessing to Location Appliance 43 H Installation of VMWare 44 I WCS Installation 48 J Requirements for Setting up the XML (NYP) server 53 K WLC (Wireless LAN Controller) 57 L Product Descriptions 58

M Cisco Internship Weekly Status Report 62 Cisco Express, Vietnam 78

N Testimonials & Feedback 90 O Personal Notes On Vietnam 91 P Sample of Cisco Express Demonstration Scripts 92

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Appendix A: FAQ on Wireless Control System (WCS) Wireless Control System WCS failed to start its service (Picture) This usually happens if your WCS image hanged the previous time and you had not officially and properly shut down the WCS. Recommended action: StopWCS and StartWCS Tags could not be detected in the WCS Map Recommended action: Inside the WCS web GUI -> Click on the Location->Synchronize Servers Make sure your “Network Designs” are assigned a LOC and has green arrows to indicate successful synchronization status. If not, click on Synchronize button at the bottom.

Appendix B: FAQ on AeroScout devices

Tag Manager Software could not communicate with Tag Activator device. “Unable to initiate communication with default parameters. Please note that communication must be initialized before any other operation can take place.”

Recommended action: Check your network connection IP address is in same subnet as your Tag Activator. Start -> Control Panel ->Network Connections-> Local Area Connection-> Under General Tab->Scroll to Internet Protocol(TCP/IP) -> Properties

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Important information about AeroScout Exciters Exciter1 (Deactivating device) IP Address: 10.1.1.15 Range: 1 metre Exciter2 (Deactivating device) IP Address: 10.1.1.16 Range: 2 metres Exciter3 (Activating device) IP Address: 10.1.1.17 Range: 3 metres Note: Exciters do not necessarily be connected to the project’s network. It only needs a power supply. Tag Activator (Activate & Deactivate RFID Tags) IP Address: 192.168.1.197 Note: Use cross cable to connect to your laptop with a static IP address of 192.168.1.200 with default subnet mask.

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Appendix C: FAQ on JSP Application Question: Application JSP cannot be loaded in browser window Recommended action: Make sure you have started your Apache Tomcat service. Note: The other 2 exciters cannot de-activate the tags, you will need to deactivate the tags with Tag Manager software and Tag Activator hardware. One exciter was supposed to deactivate the tags but it couldn’t. Please check with FrontLine’s technical consultant, Mr Lim Chong Sun. Understanding the JSP Script String DMPIP = "10.1.1.101"; // this is the DMP IP address that we are using String DMPUser = "admin"; // the username to login to the DMP to push the html files String DMPPassword = "default"; // the password to login to the DMP to push the content files. String desiredMAC = "00:0c:cc:5d:f8:64"; //This is the RFID tag’s mac address that will be detected String pushPage = "http://10.1.1.101/cisco_store/index2.html"; // 10.1.1.101 is the IP address of the DMS server that will store stores contents we want to publish. pp.doPost("http://10.1.1.11:8080/combined/Education.xml", "a", "a", "10.1.1.34"); // 10.1.1.11 is the IP address of XML server which pushes XML files onto IP phone // 10.1.1.34 is the IP address to the call manager <META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" CONTENT="5;url=index2a.jsp?doPost=<%= doPost %>" > // this is the command to make JSP page refresh every 5 sec fout = new FileOutputStream ("C:/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/JAVA/toAnn/data.txt"); // Print a line of text new PrintStream(fout).println (tag.get("x")); new PrintStream(fout).println (tag.get("y")); // call tag.get function to get the values of “x “and “y “from LOC, then output the co-ordinates in text format. File stored on “C:/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Desktop/JAVA/toAnn/data.txt”

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Appendix D: Switch Running Configurations Current configuration : 3039 bytes ! version 12.2 no service pad service timestamps debug uptime service timestamps log uptime no service password-encryption ! hostname Switch ! enable password cisco123 ! no aaa new-model mls qos map cos-dscp 0 8 16 26 32 46 48 56 mls qos min-reserve 5 170 mls qos min-reserve 6 85 mls qos min-reserve 7 51 mls qos min-reserve 8 34 mls qos ip subnet-zero ip routing ip dhcp excluded-address 10.1.1.1 10.1.1.8 ip dhcp pool RFID network 10.1.1.0 255.255.255.0 default-router 10.1.1.1 option 43 ascii "10.1.1.3" option 150 ip 10.1.1.10 ! ip multicast-routing ! ! ! no file verify auto spanning-tree mode pvst spanning-tree extend system-id ! vlan internal allocation policy ascending ! ! interface FastEthernet0/1 switchport access vlan 10 switchport mode access

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interface FastEthernet0/2 switchport mode access ! interface FastEthernet0/3 switchport mode dynamic desirable ! interface FastEthernet0/4 switchport mode dynamic desirable ! interface FastEthernet0/5 switchport mode access ! interface FastEthernet0/6 switchport mode access ! interface FastEthernet0/7 switchport mode dynamic desirable ! interface FastEthernet0/8 switchport mode access ! interface FastEthernet0/9 switchport mode dynamic desirable ! interface FastEthernet0/10 switchport mode dynamic desirable ! interface FastEthernet0/11 switchport mode dynamic desirable ! interface FastEthernet0/12 switchport mode dynamic desirable ! interface FastEthernet0/13 switchport mode dynamic desirable ! interface FastEthernet0/14 switchport access vlan 10 switchport mode access switchport voice vlan 1 mls qos trust device cisco-phone mls qos trust cos auto qos voip cisco-phone wrr-queue bandwidth 10 20 70 1 wrr-queue min-reserve 1 5

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wrr-queue min-reserve 2 6 wrr-queue min-reserve 3 7 wrr-queue min-reserve 4 8 wrr-queue cos-map 1 0 1 wrr-queue cos-map 2 2 4 wrr-queue cos-map 3 3 6 7 wrr-queue cos-map 4 5 priority-queue out spanning-tree portfast spanning-tree bpduguard enable ! interface FastEthernet0/15 switchport mode access ! interface FastEthernet0/16 switchport mode dynamic desirable ! interface FastEthernet0/17 switchport mode dynamic desirable ! interface FastEthernet0/18 switchport mode dynamic desirable ! interface FastEthernet0/19 switchport mode dynamic desirable ! interface FastEthernet0/20 switchport mode dynamic desirable ! interface FastEthernet0/21 switchport mode dynamic desirable ! interface FastEthernet0/22 switchport mode dynamic desirable ! interface FastEthernet0/23 switchport mode dynamic desirable ! interface FastEthernet0/24 switchport mode dynamic desirable ! interface GigabitEthernet0/1 switchport mode dynamic desirable ! interface GigabitEthernet0/2

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switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q switchport mode trunk ! interface Vlan1 ip address 10.1.1.1 255.255.255.0 ! interface Vlan10 ip address 10.1.10.1 255.255.255.0 ! ip classless no ip http server ! ! ! control-plane ! ! line con 0 line vty 0 4 password cisco123 login length 0 line vty 5 15 no login ! end

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Appendix E: Project Solution Start-Up Procedure There is no specific order to start up the servers and images. This page documents down the usual start-up order inside Customer Briefing Centre. Power up for step 1 to 3: 1. Physical H3 Servers connected to the KVM: NYP-SERVER NYP-CUCM NYP-WCS Note: These 3 servers are also patched to the switch. They are located near the KVM for easy access. 2. Physical H3 server connected to the Switch: NYP-DMS 3. Hardware connected to the Switch: NYP-LOC NYP-WLC NYP-SWITCH 4. Images to be booted up from each H3 server:

• Use KVM to switch your view between different servers.

4.1 WCS

• Launch VMWARE Server Console in NYP-WCS H3 server.

• Load the local host image inside • Start the Virtual Machine • When completely loaded, Start-

>Programs->Start WCS Service

4.2 CUCM • Launch VMWARE Server Console in NYP-CUCM H3 server. • Load the local host image inside • Start the Virtual Machine

4.3 NYP SERVER • Launch VMWARE Server Console in NYP-WCS H3 server. • Load the local host image inside • Start the Virtual Machine • When completely loaded, Start->Programs->Start TomCat • Click Internet Explorer and make sure you are directed to

http://10.1.1.21:8080/combined/openingPage.html

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Appendix F: Location Applet The Location Applet is to receive the raw X,Y co-ordinates from the Cisco Location Appliance and re-calibrate the X and Y’s values to show accurate onto the CBC map. Code snippets to take note: x=Double.parseDouble(line); Math.rint(x); line=reader.readLine(); y=Double.parseDouble(line); Math.rint(y); //X and Y are raw values taken from the Location Appliance if ( (x<30.00 && x>0) && (y<2.00 && y>-6.00)) //X and Y are the values of LOC give { a=180;//a and b are values for the Blue Spot on the map b=60; } if ((x<60.00 && x>30) && (y<15.00 && y>4.00)){ a=50; b=210; } } map=Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getImage("map.jpg"); g.drawImage(map,0,0,this); g.setColor(Color.blue); g.fillOval(a,b,30,30); //Position of spot indicator

For the whole Applet application, please refer the folder of “Applet Viewer”.

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The above screenshot shows the Java Applet running in Applet Viewer. The blue spot indicates where a particular RFID Tag is located.

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Appendix G: Accessing to Location Appliance (Demo Video Provided)  

The below diagram shows the connection:

Items required: - Cisco Wireless Location Appliance 2700 - Console cable - Ethernet cable for connection

- IBM USB Serial Parallel Adapter

- Go to device manager, to see which port of your notebook using. - Go to HyperTerminal, set the port you using & select “Restore Defaults” Step3: The link below for downloading the user configuration for Location Appliance http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6386/prod_installation_guides_list.html Login User: root Password: password

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Appendix H: Installation of VMWare Steps: Step1. Install win2k3 OS Step2. Install McAfee anti-virus 8.0.0 Step3. Install defilation sdat5215.exe Step4. Install TFTP server/3Com TFTP server/Setup.exe Step5. Install VMWare/VMWare server/ VMWare-server-installer-1.0.2-39867.exe Step6. Install WinVnc4.1/ vnc-4_1-x86_win32.exe Note: When installing VNC configure the password to “cisc123” Settings for VMWare Step1. Copy win2k3 image

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As shown in screenshot, paste the image to the directory of your XML server, in our case, “C:\Virtual Machines\NYP Server” Step2. Start up VMWare You have to select localhost. If this is not possible, keep restarting the program till you see it.

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Step3. Run the win2k3 image in VMWare The screenshot below shows the location to add the win2k3 image Note: Image can be found in “C:\Virtual Machines\NYP Server”

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Step4: Some settings required to set before running the VMWare image - Select Virtual machine settings

• Memory set below the blue arrow • Hard Disk, select Advanced tick “Independent” and select

“Persistent”

• Remove the following under Hardware tab (if the following below was found)

o 3 ½ floppy disk o Audio

You can now start your VMWare image User name: administrator Password: C1sco12345

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Appendix I: WCS Installation Step1: Require windows 2003 server (all editions) Step2: Download WCS-STANDARD-K9-4.2.62.0.exe into the window 2003 server Step3: WCS Installation

Step4:

Step5: Adding License to WCS

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Step6: After installation was done, download a Wireless controller guide http://www.cisco.com/application/pdf/en/us/guest/products/ps6305/c2001/ccmigration_09186a00808e53e3.pdf http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/wireless/wcs/4.2/configuration/guide/4_2_62.pdf Thereafter, the page references are to be referred to the Wireless Controller Guide. Refer to page 40 – Learn how to start WCS Refer to page 41 – Guide to login the WCS browser Login: User name: root Password: cisco1234 *Note if require license, please refer to the help menu tab at WCS browser. Step7: Adding a Controller to the WCS Database Refer to page 74 – This setting help to add a WLC controller to WCS to establish communication between each other. Due to AP had already tied to WLC, so by adding WLC is equivalent to AP tied to WLC. Step8: Adding a Location Appliance to WCS Database Refer to page 74 – The setting help to add a location appliance to WCS to establish communication between each other. (Figure 1.1)

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Select location and click “Location Servers” than add server Server Name = “Name you want to give” IP Address = “IP address of LOC” Contact Name = “can leave blank” User Name = don’t change anything Password = don’t change anything Port = 8001 Un-check Enabled for HTTPS

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Step9: Adding and Using Maps Refer to page 81 to 90 – For inserting or drawing map for campus, building and floor plan. *Note save the map in .PNG, .JPG, .JPEG, or .GIF format. And require exact measurement length and width measurement in meter or feets. Step10: Adding Access Point Refer to page 100 – To add AP to your map for detecting tags (Figure 2)

(Figure 2) If you are unable to see the RFID tag assets show in the map. Try the following troubleshooting steps: a) Go to Location; select the Synchronize Servers (Figure 3) Step1 - Select “network Designs” assign link you want, and press Synchronize Step2 - Select “Controllers” assign link you want, and press Synchronize Step3 – Select “Event Groups” and press Synchronize

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(Figure 3) b) Go to Location, select Location Servers, select LOC, select Administration, and Step1 - Choose Tracking Parameters, and enable all the Tracking Parameters Step2 - Choose History Parameters, and enable all the History Parameters Step11: Select Monitor/Map/ (map of your AP) – It should show you the map with deployed APs and detected RFID tags, normally it requires some time to detect. If a period of 10 to 15 minutes had passed, and you do not see any wireless information, please repeat the steps (a) and (b) on page 52 and 53 of this documentation.

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Appendix J: Requirements for Setting up the XML (NYP) server The following folders below are required in the XML server, to support the Location API. Folders: Axis2-1.1, Junit, WSDL2Java, xbean, jdk-1_5_0_14-mb-6_0-windows.exe (Figure 1.1) Below is a screen shot of the folders require to support location API

Figure 1.1

We will also need to set the class path to successfully support the location API .

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Setting the Class path Steps:

1. Go to Control Panel -> System -> Advanced ->Environment Variables

2. Under User Variable -> New 3. Key in all the name and value variable (Figure2.1):

a. AXIS2_HOME C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\axis2-1.1

b. CLASSPATH .;C::\junit3.8.1\junit.jar; C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\WSDL2Java\resources

c. JAVA_HOME

C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.5.0_14

d. PATH C:\ant\bin;C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.5.0_14\bin

e. xbean

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\xbean

Below is a screen shot of how we set class path to support the location API

Figure 2.1

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Files and folders needed to run JSP application In the C:\, folders needed (Figure3.1): ant, junit3.8.1, locapp In the C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Tomcat 4.1, Files needed (Figure 3.2): xercesImpl.jar , xmlParserAPIs.jar In the C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Tomcat 4.1\webapps, Folders needed (Figure 3.2): combined, dmp_demo, locapp, phonepush Below is a screen shot of all the files needed to copy to C:drive

Figure 3.1

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Figure 3.2

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Appendix K: WLC (Wireless LAN Controller)

The CISCO Wireless LAN Controller Module allows small and medium-sized businesses and enterprise branch offices to cost-effectively deploy and manage secure wireless LANs. It provides unparalleled security, mobility, and ease of use for business-critical WLANs, delivering the most secure enterprise-class wireless system available.

WLC Graphical Interface

WLC controls and manages all your Lightweight Access Points

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Appendix L: Product Descriptions

Exciter

The AeroScout Exciter line is a hardware component of AeroScout’s industry-leading Visibility System for Active RFID and location applications. Exciters add value by extending the AeroScout system to provide robust and sophisticated RFID detection and identification capabilities, using the same Wi-Fi-based Active RFID tags that can also be accurately located in real time by the AeroScout system. For our project, we use the Exciter to “excite” the RFID tag to send out its beacon signals, we program the function and range of the exciter, once the RFID tag is within it’s the Exciter’s programmed coverage, the Exciter will activate the RFID tag and thereafter our JSP program will trigger the IP PHONE, DMS and Location Tracking. More details: http://www.elliottdata.com/PDF%20files/ExciterDataSheetEmail.pdf

RFID Active Tag

Active RFID tags have their own internal power source, which is used to power the integrated circuits and to broadcast the response signal to the reader. Communications from active tags to readers is typically much more reliable (i.e. fewer errors) than from passive tags due to the ability for active tags to conduct a "session" with a reader.

IP Phone

An IP phone uses Voice over IP technologies allowing telephone calls to be made over the internet instead of the ordinary PSTN system. The phones use protocols such as Session Initiation Protocol, Skinny Client Control Protocol or one of various proprietary protocols such as that used by Skype. IP phones can be simple software-based Soft phones or purpose-built hardware devices that appear much like an ordinary telephone or cordless phone or an ATA (analog telephony adapter) which allows to reuse ordinary PSTN phones. One of the primary motivations for implementing such a system is the lower calling cost. When calling other IP phones over the internet one only pays for the usually fixed cost internet bandwidth. It may have many features an analog doesn't support, such as e-mail-like IDs for contacts that may be easier to remember than names or phone numbers

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For our project, a notification message is sent to the Account Manager’s or CBC Program Manager;s IP PHONE in a form of a message or a picture.

Wireless Control System

Cisco Wireless Control System (WCS) is the industry leading platform for wireless LAN planning, configuration, and management. Cisco WCS provides a powerful foundation that allows IT managers to design, control, and monitor enterprise wireless networks from a centralized location, simplifying operations and reducing the total cost of ownership.

The Cisco WCS is an optional network component that works in conjunction with Cisco Aironet Lightweight Access Points, Cisco wireless LAN controllers and the Cisco Wireless Location Appliance. With Cisco WCS, network administrators have a single solution for RF prediction, policy provisioning, network optimization, troubleshooting, user tracking, security monitoring, and wireless LAN systems management. Robust graphical interfaces make wireless LAN deployment and operations simple and cost-effective. Detailed trending and analysis reports make Cisco WCS vital to ongoing network operations.

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Order of information flow

Minimum 3 APs to track co-ordinates of RFID Tag

Cisco hardware communicate with the HP servers

End-user visual.

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Login Information

Computer/Device Switch Rack Patch IP Address Username Password Access via

NYP-Switch - - - 10.1.1.1 - cisco123 Console NYP-Server 01 20 (3-10) 20 10.1.1.11 Administrator Cisco123 KVM NYP-WCS 02 19 (3-10) 19 10.1.1.12 Administrator Cisco123 KVM

NYP-CUCM 03 18 (3-10) 18 10.1.1.13 Administrator Cisco123 KVM IMAGE-Server - - - 10.1.1.21 Administrator C1sco12345 VMWare IMAGE-WCS - - - 10.1.1.22 Administrator C1sco12345 VMWare

IMAGE-CUCM - - - 10.1.1.23 Administrator C1sco12345 VMWare NYP-WLC 04 - - 10.1.1.3 admin admin Web Browser (HTTPS) NYP-LOC 05 - - 10.1.1.5 root Password Console NYP-DMS 06 - - 10.1.1.101 Administrator Cisco123 VNC

NYP-IPPhone 7971

07 09 (TBR) 79 10.1.1.102 - - Physical Device

NYP-DMP 08 10 (TBR) 80 10.1.1.103 admin default Web Browser (Empty) 09 13 - 10.1.1.201 - - WLC / WCS

AP-DemoTheater 10 14 (DT) 126 10.1.1.202 - - WLC / WCS AP-VerticalDemo 11 15 (VD) 22 10.1.1.203 - - WLC / WCS

AP-Merlion 12 16 (MC) 05 10.1.1.204 - - WLC / WCS Software - WCS - - - Image-WCS’ root Cisco123 Web Browser

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Appendix M: Cisco Internship Weekly Status Report

Week1: 3rd Mar to 7th Mar Week 7: 14th Apr to 18th Apr Week 2: 10th Mar to 14th Mar Week 8: 21st Apr to 25th Apr Week 3: 17th Mar to 21st Mar Week 9: 28th Apr to 2nd May Week 4: 24th Mar to 28th Mar Week 10: 5th May to 9th May Week 5: 31st Mar to 4th Apr Week 11: 12th May to 16th May Week 6: 7th Apr to 11th Apr Week 12: 19th May to 23rd May Week 13: 26th May to 1st Jun

�

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Week 1 ( 3rd Mar 2008 to 7th Mar 2008 ) Work Assignment:

To take a quick tour around the Customer Briefing Centre inside Capital Tower. To attend web learning lessons to get familiar with Cisco products. To attend web learning lessons on Cisco’s corporate culture, vision and mission. To contact relevant people that can help in the RFID project. To understand the previously done RFID project and discuss on its improvements. To take part in a Webex Training Centre demonstration for education purposes. To take a data centre tour to understand the network behind our projects. To pass two required tests before access is granted into the Data Centre lab.

Work Accomplished:

Got to familiar with the Customer Briefing Centre as well as other levels such as level 26th, 27th, 29th.

Got to understand Cisco driven technologies like WebEx, TelePresence, IP-Phones and IPICS.

Passed the test for both 2006 ESD Training Program and Cisco Systems Laboratory Safety as required before employees can enter the Data Centre.

Job responsibilities assigned clearly among team members. Attended web learning lessons on Cisco products. Attended web learning lessons on Cisco’s corporate culture, vision and mission. Contacted Min Se and other relevant people that can help in RFID project. Briefly understood the previously done RFID project from the previous batch.

Capital Tower

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Week 2 ( 10th Mar 2008 to 14th Mar 2008 ) Work Assignment:

To get the Access Point that is being loaned out. To get an Exciter that can help overcome limitations from the previously done

project. To understand how to make the main application smarter. To find out if the Wireless Control System can provide us with the X,Y location of a

particular RFID tag. To find other alternatives that can do location tracking. To go through demonstration of Cisco products and solutions in the Customer

Briefing Centre (CBC) To give an update to the Program Manager and project Supervisor regarding the

progress of our RFID project. To find out how to integrate Access Points or Exciters in the Customer Briefing

Centre. To Re-design a flowchart concerning CBC PM Guidebook. To do a wireless survey once the borrowed AP is set up in the demo theatre. To purchase MR101-A from Frontier Integrated Technology Pte Ltd for Cisco

Express 2. Work Accomplished:

Successfully contacted Min Se and took back the loaned out AP. Successfully restored the AP to its original position. Successfully tracked an RFID tag within the Demo Theatre. Got a clearer picture on how to improve on the RFID project. Found out that if we were to make main application smarter to do location tracking,

we cannot get the X and Y location from the WCS but from Location Appliance (LOC).

Found out that another way to do location tracking in CBC is by using multiple exciters.

Went through the demonstration of Cisco products and solutions inside CBC from Unified Communications to Wireless solutions.

Received a clearer direction for the requirements of the RFID project (Phase 2). Submitted a report to update the Program Manager and project Supervisor on the

progress of the RFID project (Phase 2). Contacted someone who can help in loaning out the device to do a wireless

survey. Used NetStumbler on IBM laptop to survey the signal strengths of our own APs in

demo theatre. Submitted the CBC PM Guidebook flowchart.

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Week 3 ( 17th Mar 2008 to 21st Mar 2008 ) Work Assignment:

To help consolidate a list of customers in Seoul who attended the customer briefing centre’s demo.

To find out how to improve on the RFID project in terms of networking. To update the WCS software to the latest WCS-STANDARD-K9-5.0.56.0 in WCS

image and server Update virus definition of the virus scanner in the WCS server. Allow Internet connectivity to the WCS server using Ivan’s switch. To upgrade the WCS software’s license so that new controllers can be added in. To test the previous RFID project if it is still working.

Work Accomplished:

Learnt how customers in Seoul are scheduled to attend the customer briefing centre’s demo.

Met up with Poh Seng-a networking guru in Cisco and got ideas on RFID project. Updated anti-virus definitions on WCS physical server. Downloaded latest WCS software. Successfully installed the latest WCS version onto WCS image and the physical

server. Upgraded the WCS software’s license so that new controllers can be added in. Successfully tested the previous RFID project along with the DMP and IP Phone.

Summary/Notes This week was side-tracked to help Tina with some customer’s list. This has helped me to better understand how the Customer Briefing Centre handles customers. Questions like , “Who are identified as the presenter for the demo”, “Which demo the customers are interested to see?”. Met up with Poh Seng and got to learn more about how wireless technologies work. Also learnt that Exciters may or may not need to be connected to the network, it can be powered by a Power Over Ethernet(POE) or an adapter. However, the adapters are quite special and need another plug module to be compatible with our local power supply. That is why, in the case a certain spot do not have a LAN point with Power Over Ethernet., we could use a POE switch where by we one end is our common AC adapter plug and the other end is a LAN cable to power up the Exciter. To allow Internet connectivity to our network in order to update the virus definitions in our three H3 servers, we plug one LAN cable between the server’s second NIC to the Ivan’s switch which is connected to the Internet.

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Week 4 ( 24th Mar 2008 to 28th Mar 2008 ) Work Assignment:

To speak with FrontLine (AeroScout’s reseller in Singapore) regarding their solutions for our project.

To install WCS Version 4.62 from version 5.0.56 as the latest version has conflicts with our LOC.

To restore the entire WCS and project to its working state as WCS version 5.0.56 causes problems.

To explore the APIs to Cisco 2700 Location Appliance. To explore the capabilities of the WCS Navigator.

Work Accomplished:

Spoke with Chong Sun, technical consultant from FrontLine on Tuesday, 25th March 2008.

Successfully re-installed WCS version 4.62 after a few “Failed to start WCS server” errors with version 5.0.56.

Successfully synchronized with the Location Appliance. Successfully added back the Access Points onto Demo Theatre map. Succesfully detected the RFID tags detected inside the Demo Theatre. Obtained links to Cisco Developer Services Central to obtain some APIs to the Location

Appliance. Attended the Unified Communications Submit 2008 at Suntec.

Summary/Notes We wanted to leverage on the latest WCS version to do a more accurate location tracking. However, the latest version 5.0.56 do not work well with the current LOC we have. We reinstalled to the older version and it works fine. Spoke face to face with Chong Sun and learnt about how AeroScout products or solutions can be incorporated into our project.

AeroScout RFID Active Tags

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Week 5 ( 31st Mar 2008 to 4th Apr 2008 ) Work Assignment:

To install and test Exciter loaned from Nanyang Polytechnic. To deploy 3 existing APs inside Demo theatre into Raffles, Sentosa meeting rooms

& Data Centre. To make sure the RFID tag detection is more accurate with the Exciter. To send the two AeroScout Tag Activators to BT Frontline for repair. To find out how to purge older data stored inside the Wireless Lan Controller.

Work Accomplished:

Successfully installed and tested the Exciter loaned from Nanyang Polytechnic. Successfully patched the 3 APs from Raffles,Merlion & Sentosa meeting rooms to

our own switch. RFID Tag detection is ‘excited’ and more accurate with an exciter. Sent two AeroScout Tag Acvitators to BT Frontline. Successfully configured the WLC to store RFID data up till only 5 minutes.

Summary/Notes Started to come in earlier to the office to have a headstart of the day. Reach office at about 8am daily. Successfully installed the Exciter loaned from Nanyang Poly. The Exciter seem to be working but it defeated the purpose of having an Exciter in our project at this given moment. First of all, the RFID Tags are programmed to be activated once it is powered up, which meant that the AP will pick up its signal and execute our program without giving us any control of the event. Thus, we need to program the RFID active tag to be deactivated at start, and only be activated after it passed by an Exciter. We managed to console into the Wireless Lan Controller(WLC) with my laptop and successfully changed the RFID TimeOut property to 300 seconds. We also tried to change it to 60 seconds to experimental purposes but there seem to be a polling lag between WLC and LOC. I had also learnt patching and had successfully deployed AP in each of the 3 meeting rooms to cover a triangular area – To track location of RFID tags wirelessly.

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Week 6 ( 7th Apr 2008 to 11th Apr 2008 ) Work Assignment:

To find out possible collaboration between Apple iTouch and iPhone with Cisco DMP.

To think of ways to mount the 3 APs to a higher position. To cut a video showing the projects and lives of Cisco Interns in the CBC. To help facilitate Mdm Wong’s two project students to understand concepts of the

WCS,WLC,LOC. To produce a powerpoint for our RFID project for the Program Manager to share

with the team. Work Accomplished:

Found out existing collaboration projects on Apple iTouch and its release of API. Thought of using 3M tapes or tripods to mount 3 APs to a higher position. Successfully cut a video of the life of Cisco interns. Took Mdm Wong and her two project students on a CBC tour and understanding

of our project. Produced a powerpoint showing the practical usage of our project.

Summary/Notes I was side-tracked to find out the possibilities of a collaboration between Apple iTouch and our emerging techologies, DMS. DMS is not launched to the Singaporean market yet. We haven tried to mount the 3 APs to a higher position with 3M tapes or tripods. Still deciding to buy tripods or not. We had also recorded a video featuring the life of the Cisco Interns supposingly to showcase to the NTU-MBA students but in the end the idea was scraped. Mdm Wong and her two project students from NYP came and we explained our project and solutions so as to help them with their in-house project in NYP. I had also helped Tina to produce powerpoint slides to briefly describe the use of our project in the CBC. We can use that for certain presentations.

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Week 7 ( 14th Apr 2008 to 18th Apr 2008 ) Work Assignment:

To install the DMM software into the DMS Server. To upload the NYP video into the DMS Server. To complete the script for HealthCare demo – AGFA System To record the demo for IPICS and UCCX done by Ronnie. To discuss with Joseph, Tina and Ivan for the Cisco Express script

documentations.

Work Accomplished: We do not need to install DMM, but simply use Ultra VNC (A remote control

software) into DMS and paste files into the DMS Server. Successfully uploaded a NYP video into the DMS Server so we can show as our

welcome message. Successfully compiled and produced a softcopy script for the AGFA system

healthcare demo. Recorded the demo for IPICS and UCCX which are used as reference to do the

Cisco Express script documentation. Met up with Don Sim, Asia Pacific Lead for Emerging Technologies Group.

Discussed on the projects related to RFID and DMS. He said that our current project is more advanced than the previously done project. This is because we included the element of location tracking.

Summary/Notes: I came to realize that we do not really need a Digital Media Manager because we do not have so many Digital Media Player (DMP). Our project has only one DMP to push content to the screen. Instead, we can use a remote control software called Ultra VNC into our DMS server and paste the files we want to upload. Met up with Don Sim, Asia Pacific Lead for Emerging Technologies Group. They had a similar RFID project. They use DMS technology, RFID tag readers, RFID passive tags, wireless technologies and a small database. When customer receives their tags(RFID embedded as well), the customer service personnel will key in his name and this will be tied to an identifying number of his RFID tag. Once this customer carrying his RFID passive tag passes through two RFID reader(To form a gantry), he will see a welcome message personalized with his name seen on a big LCD screen. Don said that our project is a step advance than his current project because we included the wireless tracking function. Till now, it is not very accurate. We are still looking into it. Started to come in earlier to the office to have a headstart of the day. Reach office at about 7.45am daily.

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Week 8 ( 21st Apr 2008 to 25th Apr 2008 ) Work Assignment:

To look into increasing accuracy of the 3 AP’s triangulation and reflect real-time inside the WCS.

To go though past vertical demonstrations recorded in the Cisco Express 1. To configure switch to accommodate BT FrontLine’s MobileView Server into our

project network. To install Exciters at appropriate strategic positions covering CBC. To mount the Access Points to a higher position for signal clarity testing. To enhance JSP page to detect more RFID tags and not just to one tag. –

Flexibility Work Accomplished:

Completed the Unified Communication script for Cisco Express 2. Went through all 9 vertical videos on Cisco Express 1 especially the Education

vertical. Exciters are allowed to our project’s network via switch. Successfully installed 3 AeroScout Exciters in Pantry and Media Wall B area. Successfully allowed JSP pages to detect multiple tags rather than just one tag. MobileView server is not ready yet and we may not need it for our project. Still looking into all possibilities to enahance LOC’s location tracking accuracy. Met up with Sonny R Sammy, Manager for Regional Sales.

KVM Switch

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Summary/Notes: We are still looking into the accuracy of the detected RFID Tags. Currently AeroScout’s solution can only work with Active RFID tags. Working with the passive tags are in the roadmap of AeroScout. Apart from the doing the RFID Project, I am the only person helping Ivan to write the demonstration scripts for Cisco Express. Although that gives me lesser time to work on the project but I am thankful for An Yang to help things out. My time researching into the project may be short but it has been fruitful as I wanted to achieve more before the end of my Cisco internship. Exciters do not really work well with our Cisco-built solution. They do not really help the Location Appliance or WLC to track a particular tag when it passes by an Exciter. Exciters are known as choke-points in our WCS system. The manager of Regional Sales met the project team expressing interest with our RFID project. He wanted to show the Marina Bay Sands management on how Cisco Systems can enhance their business. Our project is to show personalized welcoming message and advertisements – The retail vertical. If its possible, to show wireless tracking of assets and resources.

AeroScout Exciters

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Week 9 ( 28th Apr 2008 to 2nd May 2008 ) Work Assignment:

Program 2 different tags to show 2 different IP Phone alert messages. To upload 2 different vertical videos to show case the values of having 2 different

RFID tags. To simulate location based tracking by using a query button to query location of a

RFID tag. Program JSP codes to output current RFID’s location by an image or text alert. To complete the demo script for Education vertical for Cisco Express. To discuss with Joseph, Mr Ng Kee Way & Ivan for the Cisco Express script

documentations. Work Accomplished:

Successfully programmed 2 different IP Phone alert messages. Received better directions on how to write the Cisco Express demo scripts. Completed Education script but lacks CCRE and Meeting Place Express

Summary/Notes: Managed to edit the JSP programming codes to accept 2 different RFID tags and at the same time push 2 different messages to the IP Phone. May not necessarily just to alert the Program Manager of a customer’s arrival at CBC . This proved that 2 JSP pages can run at the same time, even if 2 tags are being detected at the same time, the IP Phone will still display 2 different messages but one at a time. For the screen to show different videos, I believe that is a challenge. This can also show case a hospitality scenario where by a hotel manager can be alerted of a ready hotel room when a chambermaid had finished preparing the room and exits. This can prove useful during peak periods where checking in and out of hotel rooms turns over rapidly. Continued to work on the Cisco Express scripts. Especially on the Eduation script. I feel time is better utilized even if I have to work on the project and on the scripts. Also received instructions to do the Healthcare AGFA Cisco Express Demo script. Still needed to plan for free days to script the JSP and find a suitable video for the Education vertical. This week’s work assignments will be done by the following week 10 due to the responsibility for the demo scripts.

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Week 10 ( 5th May 2008 to 9th May 2008 ) Work Assignment:

To upload 2 different vertical videos to show case the values of having 2 different RFID tags.

To simulate location based tracking by using a query button to query location of a RFID tag.

To program JSP codes to output current RFID’s location by an image or text alert. To complete the demo script for Education vertical for Cisco Express. To complete the demo script for Healthcare vertical for Cisco Express. To demonstrate project to Jing Cheng from Wireless Networking Business Unit

(APAC). Work Accomplished:

Successfully shown 2 different videos for 2 different tags Completed the demo script for Education and Health for Cisco Express Demonstrated the project to Mr Jing Cheng Successfully developed a location tracking interface with Java Applets Able to simulate location tracking without the need to press a query button

Summary/Notes: Time flies as we are down to the last 2 weeks. I have not port our project to the CBC network and perhaps will start doing start next week. Did a project demonstration in a short notice’s time to Mr Jing Cheng from the Wireless Networking Business Unit(APAC). We were told that there is a newer version of LOC coming out soon and could accomplish more in a wireless environment. This internship reinforced a principle in my life. “Being busy does not mean you are effectively fruitful.” Although I am given more things to do other than my own project, I still volunteered my service to wherever I am needed, I sensed fulfillment and yet not burnt out. The beginning of my internship was feeling uncomfortable as I was afraid not able to picked up the half-done project and complete its objectives. Cisco gave me lots of valuable experiences, meeting with Joseph a few times discussing on the Cicso Express scripts had broaden my knowledge and feel about business with Cisco. We are not selling boxes (Routers,Swithes), we are selling a solution. I also saw how technologies and dull hardware boxes comes alive when in businesses. I knew this all along but I didn’t see this in action until I was given a chance to be part of the Cisco Express team that will be going to Vietnam, Hanoi.

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Along the way in my internship, I had also made some brief technical know-how videos for myself and for the next batch. The LOC Appliance 2700’s location tracking is still not accurate in reflecting X,Y on our CBC map. We had tried to develop a java applet to simulate location tracking. It can be hard-coded though but it is good enough for a proof of concept – That LOC and WCS is capable of tracking devices.

Demo Theatre inside Customer Briefing Centre

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Week 11 ( 12th May 2008 to 16th May 2008 ) Work Assignment:

To patch our project switch to the CBC network. To tidy up JSP codings so that a non-technical person can easily configure our

solution To demonstrate our project to Mr Simon Eng To start of report writing and documentation

Work Accomplished:

Demonstrated project to Mr Simon Eng and has provided good feedback on presentation and further improvements

Succesfully patched our project network to the CBC network Continued on to polish up the demonstration scripts Took screenshots of project development and configurations for report writing

Summary/Notes: Broken personal record to reach office place at 7.25am. Felt like its time to give in my 2 week’s harder work. We do not need to re-configure our network’s IP address in order to join the CBC network. We were not given routers to route between two switches and VLANS and was told to re-configure our address. However, with the emerging technology of Cisco called DMS, we only need to patch the DMP into our switch! That sounds fairly simple for us and saves us the trouble to change IP addresses. Going to get very busy with the demonstration scripts. In fact, was already busy this week.

My work space

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Week 12 ( 19th May 2008 to 23rd May 2008 ) Work Assignment:

To look into increasing accuracy of the 3 AP’s triangulation and reflect real-time inside the WCS.

To go though past vertical demonstrations recorded in the Cisco Express 1. To configure switch to accommodate BT FrontLine’s MobileView Server into our

project network. To install Exciters at appropriate strategic positions covering CBC. To mount the Access Points to a higher position for signal clarity testing. To enhance JSP page to detect more RFID tags and not just to one tag. –

Flexibility Work Accomplished:

Completed the Unified Communication script for Cisco Express 2. Went through all 9 vertical videos on Cisco Express 1 especially the Education

vertical. Exciters are allowed to our project’s network via switch. Successfully installed 3 AeroScout Exciters in Pantry and Media Wall B area. Successfully allowed JSP pages to detect multiple tags rather than just one tag. MobileView server is not ready yet and we may not need it for our project. Still looking into all possibilities to enahance LOC’s location tracking accuracy.

Summary/Notes: It was a busy week preparing for Cisco Express Vietnam from 26th May to 1st June. The project had been wrapped up and can be one of the showcase for customers in CBC. The engineers that I worked with were all pleased up the closure. Although didn’t have time to really touh up on the project this week. I feel satisfied and convinced that I had put in my best and finally I could see the fruits of my labor. The project had come to another level. From detecting multiple tags and showing different videos to the ability of accurately track a moving RFID active tag. Made some “Thank You” cards and gifts to the Cisco folks and really appreciated the opportunity to be a Cisco College Intern.

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Some photos taken for memory sake on Week 12:

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Week 13 ( 26th May 2008 to 1st June 2008 ) (Day 1) Work Assignment:

To conclude the demonstration scripts to be used for internal training. To include the 5-step demonstration principles into our existing scripts.

Work Accomplished:

Submitted the demonstration scripts to Joseph and Simon. Summary/Notes: My first day in Hanoi was a busy day. Just finished some demonstration scripting. Its 12:30AM in the morning in Hanoi and 1:30AM in Singapore. Currently staying in DaeWoo Hotel. I heard many Korean companies invests in Vietnam. I can see DaeWoo, LG, Samsung and perhaps I had missed out some brands. I saw Canon too. Vietnamese people are very slim and petite people. So far had a pleasant day with them, probably because they are from the Hotel and they will know how to handle their customers. Our $1 is their 11,000 dong. I heard a can drink can be as cheap as SGD 50 cents which is their 5000 dongs. The flight to Hanoi was 3.5 hours long and it had been smooth except when it is landing, the pressure in my ears is hurting. Wireless Internet access here is free but I heard it will be charged in Intercontinental Hotel We will be changing our hotel stay to Intercontinental tomorrow. Till then, I can really settle on my schedules and belongings. Food in DaeWoo hotel is fine because we had international style buffet. Simon, Aloysius, Darwin, Ivan and I had dinner buffet.

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DaeWoo Hotel

International Buffet in DaeWoo Hotel

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Week 13 ( 26th May 2008 to 1st June 2008 ) (Day 2) Work Assignment:

Dry runs on vertical demonstrations Work Accomplished:

Did some dry runs on Unified Communications demonstrations till we are very familiar.

Changed the message to be sent to a Wireless IP Phone to suit the Healthcare demonstration.

Tested all technologies, functions and flow of UC,Manufacturing,FSI,Healthcare verticals.

Summary/Notes: We changed our stay in DaeWoo Hotel to Intercontinental Hotel. We had our buffet breakfast in DaeWoo before heading to check out and leave for Intercontinental. Buffet was good, the peach juice was sweet in its heavy taste. Their vegetables are very fresh. The place we stay in Intercontinental is that our place is so far away, we need to call for a “taxi” service to bring us there. But its still a walking distance. We only checked our luggage in but we check in to the hotel only when we come back from our day at the Cisco Express VAN at the warehouse area. It is currently under some minor adjustments. We did our dry runs on the Cisco Express and had a solid feel of what is it like to demonstrate in the cramped space inside the Van. Simon,Aloysius and I took a cab and went to the center of Hanoi which is called the Hoan Kiem Lake. Along the way in the cab, we can use the locals strolling along the lake. After the lake, we had reached one of the busiest place in Hanoi. Places like H.Ngang and H.Dao. We alighted at H.Dao and walked to find some local food. We walked for an hour plus and finally we settled down in a local bar restaurant that a drink and a main dish cost me SGD$8.80. One thing I like about Vietnam is that their ladies, be in riding their scooters, passerby or shop assistant, they all look good and slim. You hardly, or didn’t see any Vietnamese fat. I believe this is the true beauty of Vietnamese ladies. Without makeup or fanciful dresses, they look virtous even without their traditional clothes which we saw some ladies wore near our warehouse area. My heart dropped as I noticed this and realized how beautiful Vietnam is, if only as time goes by, the development of Vietnam would bring out not only their people’s passion and beauty but the ability to be modern and catch up with developed countries. I believe Vietnam is about 2 generations behind Singapore at this moment. I can’t wait to see Vietnam prosper even more, modernized but yet kept its traditional values and morals.

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Hoan Kiem Lake(Map)

Hoan Kiem Lake

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Week 13 ( 26 May 2008 to 1st June 2008 ) (Day 3) Work Assignment:

To write short script for a short demonstration of the Web EOC. To discuss with Joseph on the internal training schedules and firming up of details. To dry run on UC script and FSI script. To improve on the UC script. To fit the UC scenario into the Manufacturing vertical.

Work Accomplished:

Written a short Web EOC demonstration with the help of Adam from ESI company. Firmed up details of the internal training and selected 2 System Engineers to train

more with us. Practiced on the UC script and FSI script. Improved the UC script with Appendix at the back to further “fool-proof” the script Successfully fit the UC scenario into the Manufacturing vertical.

Summary/Notes: It is the third day in Vietnam! Joseph came to the Express van at about 3pm. In the morning, the express team that is here on Monday went for the usual breakfast. We took a cab to the warehouse area. We managed to fit the Unified Communications scenario into the Manufacturing vertical. In the beginning, it was very disorganized and confusing. Darwin,Ivan,Aloysius and I took a cab to DaeWoo Hotel. Went opposite of the hotel lunch at a café called Casa Maia. We also bought some stuff like chewing gum from a Korean shop down the street After spending some time in the Cisco Express van with Joseph, Wailing, Simon and Aloysius, I helped to pack the Cisco Express van to be transported to a stadium for the launch day. Our training site will be at the stadium from tomorrow onwards. Ivan, Aloysius and I went to the night market, we were looking for jerseys. There was this man who said he was a student started to bring us around. We weren’t really suspicious of him at first, after some sales assistant in a shop we went to told us he stole a book from another street stall, we were quite surprised. We guarded our belonging as he brought us around. From one of the shop we spend more time visiting, I took a picture with a Vietnamese sales assistant. After our shopping is done, the man tried to sell us a Vietnamese language handbook for 100,000 dong, equivalent to SGD$10. We didn’t buy that at first. He was rather frustrated and walked off insisting on not taking our tips which is about few dollars dong. Aloysius and I bumped into him again and he tried to sell to us again, this time he didn’t hide his intention, he was trying to gain our compassion on his situation and stuff. So I contributed SGD$5 and Aloysius SGD$10 just to buy his book.

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Empty Cisco Express Container preparing to transport it to Quan Ngua Stadium

University student working as a part-time shop assistant in night market. Night market closes at about 9pm Vietnam time.

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Week 13 ( 26 May 2008 to 1st June 2008 ) (Day 4) Work Assignment:

To demonstrate the Unified Communication to the Vietnamese System Engineers, partners and Account managers.

To assist the Vietnamese system engineers to be independent with their demonstrations

To ensure all needed demo equipment, VM Ware images and routines are properly set.

Work Accomplished:

Received a good-thumbs-up for the UC demonstration. Summary/Notes: Went to a sports stadium (Quan Ngua) where Cisco Express had been moved. Today is the official day 1 of all internal training. I see that Vietnamese are very carefree people and they worked slowly, however I was happy to see them collaborating, discussing and making their best effort to learn the UC demonstration. We went through 2 rounds of demonstration, Joseph said it was very good. I stayed in the Express van to be of help if needed while while the Vietnamese SEs practiced more. Aloysius and I went back to the hotel early to have an earlier rest. After today, I had learnt about how technologies can transform businesses. Rather than just talking about the features of technologies, I had learnt how to bring technologies to help businesses up sell and cross sell. I had developed interests in learning IT in Businesses. It will make IT more interesting and I believe people want to know how an IT solution impacts them and not marvel at their features.

Demonstrating Unified Communications script to channel partners and Vietnam System Engineers.

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Week 13 ( 26 May 2008 to 1st June 2008 ) (Day 5) Work Assignment:

To demonstrate the Unified Communication to the Vietnamese System Engineers, partners and Account managers.

To assist the Vietnamese system engineers to be independent with their demonstrations

To ensure all needed demo equipment, VM Ware images and routines are properly set.

Work Accomplished: In one hour’s time, practiced and thought of scenarios for Manufacturing, Education,

Financial Services Insurance and Public Sector verticals Summary/Notes: It was considered a short day because in one hour, we need to think of scenarios to demonstrate for the sectors from Manufacturing, Education, Financial Services and Insurance (FSI) and Public Sector. We had demonstrated all 4 verticals 2 times for 2 groups and that made my show-time 8 times. There will be an actual filming tomorrow and we will cover all 6 verticals. It had been a good experience working for Cisco Express and with such a capable manager. Although it had been a little stressful for me, but it certainly expanded my capacity. Our filming will start at around 1pm. We can reach the Cisco Express Van by 11am tomorrow for some dry runs before the actual filming. The actual filming to be an example of how to demonstrate and how to present well for the Cisco Express teams in future.

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Taken with a Vietnam Cisco System Engineer named Quan inside Express Van

Inside the “Data Centre” of Cisco Express Van. It was very cold inside.

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Week 13 ( 26 May 2008 to 1st June 2008 ) (Day 6) Work Assignment:

To do demonstrations on all verticals for official filming. Work Accomplished:

In one hour’s time, practiced and thought of scenarios for Manufacturing, Education, Financial Services Insurance and Public Sector verticals

Summary/Notes: It is the last day I will be working in and for Cisco Express. What I had learnt is not just the Vietnamese culture, people and their lifestyle. Inside Cisco Express, I had learnt how a story, a problem statement can bring dull and boring technical technologies into life and make it useful for our lifestyle. I had grown in much interest to do business for IT. I had also learnt a lot from Joseph, the overall in-charge of Cisco Express in Asia-Pacific on how to link business needs and IT solutions.

Quan, filiming for IPICS (Inter-operability Communications System) demonstration.

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Cisco Express Van under a set-up tent in Quan Ngua Stadium.

The Cisco Express Team: L to R: Davis Li (NYP), Cisco Express Director (Joseph Lee), Aloysius Clement (NYP), Ivan Khor (NYP Graduate and Cisco Associate Engineer), Mr Simon Eng(NYP Lecturer)

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Week 13 ( 26 May 2008 to 1st June 2008 ) (Day 7) Work Assignment:

Pack up and head towards airport. Summary/Notes: It is the last day I will be in Vietnam, Hanoi. It had been a great experience, especially being part of the internal training team for Cisco Express Vietnam. It is the very first time Cisco does a system engineer internal training. I sincerely hope the Vietnam SE (System Engineers) will bring in greater sales for Cisco Express.

Two Intercontinental hotel lobby ambassadors

Intercontinental Hotel service crew who had been to Singapore for a 6-month F&B training

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Appendix N: Testimonials & Feedback

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Appendix O: Personal Notes On Vietnam Statistics Capital City: Hanoi Largest City: Ho Chi Minh City Official Language: Vietnamese Independence: From France, recognized only in 1954 Population (2008 Estimate): 86,116,559 GDP(2006 Estimate): $262.5 billion Total Area: 329,560 (sq km) 127,243 (sq mi) Currency: dong (VND) Calling Code: +84

On a personal note: The generation in Vietnam is mostly young people, can hardly see elderly in Hanoi. Even shop keepers are young people. Their favorite mode of transport is by motorbikes. I once saw a family of 4 riding on a bike. The cheapest taxi fare starts at SGD$0.90 but there are quite a number of pirate taxi. Generally, the Vietnamese people are polite but some more experienced shop keepers would display arrogance if you try to slash their prices. They trade either in USD or Vietnam Dongs. Some accept Singapore dollars. They are also quite passionate people and are not shy with strangers. They are even quite enthusiastic about making new friends (especially foreigners) or pose for a photograph.

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Appendix P: Sample of Cisco Express Demonstration Scripts

Standard KVM Switch Commands

Big Plasma TV

Screen 1 Screen 2 Screen 3 Screen 3 Output 001 Output 002 Output 003 Output 004

Input 001: Charles Dickens Laptop (Demo1)

Input 002: Laptop beside Charles Dickens (Demo1)

Input 003: Edgar Pole or Allan Lee Laptop (Demo3)

Input 004: Jules Verne Laptop (Demo4)

Input 005: Camera stand beside Charles Dickens Laptop (Demo1)

Input 006: Camera stand beside Jules Verne Laptop (Demo2)

Input 010: Sypixx CCTV

- SAMPLE ONLY -

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Pre-Education Demo Preparations VMware Images to Power Up Main (10.1.1.20) MP Express (10.1.1.25) CUCM 5.04 (10.1.1.10) PhoneTop (10.1.1.12) CUPS (10.1.1.16) Laptop Setup:

1) A laptop to launch the Video Portal via website LCD Screen Setup via the KVM Switch Box beside Charles Dickens’ Laptop:

1) Input: 001, Output: 001(Launch the “Schedule a Meeting Place” on Charles Laptop)

2) Input: 003, Output: 002(Launch Video Portal on Edgar Pole laptop) 3) Input: 010, Output: 003 (For CCTV)

Software:

1) Run Meeting Place Express (Web Collaboration) with Charles and Jules’ laptop once to test it first

IPICS Demo:

1) Login the IPICS IP Phone , Username: 1111, Password: 1111 -> press 2 for Police Channel

PhoneTop Demo: 1) Make sure Sherwin is marked as (P) and not (A) before you proceed with your demo.

- SAMPLE ONLY -

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- SAMPLE ONLY -

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- SAMPLE ONLY -

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- SAMPLE ONLY -