Hewlett Packard Enterprise subsidiary Aruba has expanded its roster of easy-to-deploy safety offerings using edge and IoT infrastructure to bring employees back to work safely.

Aruba has announced an expanded set of integrated, easy-to-deploy edge and IoT products designed to let organisations bring employees back to physical workplaces safely.

Developed using Aruba wifi access points, EnOcean 800 and 900MHz radios that insert into the access points, and compatible IoT devices from Aruba technology partners, these monitor hoteling spaces, room occupancy, air quality, and cleaning and disinfection scheduling. By operating on users’ existing Aruba infrastructure and leveraging cloud-based applications, they can be rapidly deployed and eliminate the need for expensive IoT overlay networks.

As the world continues to adapt to new business realities brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, organisations are considering a myriad of return-to-work scenarios, including re-opening offices and safely bringing employees back in-person. Since IT infrastructure spans across the entire enterprise, it is a platform on which to build cross-organisational systems and processes encompassing social distancing, contact tracing, infection control and space management.

Flexible, cloud-native applications targeting these use cases can be quickly spun up at low cost as return-to-work initiatives are rolled out.

The Aruba ESP edge services platform provides the unified, secure, cloud-native network infrastructure that underpins EnOcean’s integration with Aruba. Plugging an EnOcean USB adapter into a compatible Aruba access point enables communication with wireless IoT air quality monitors, presence detectors, light level sensors and other devices that use EnOcean-developed protocols, wireless radios and energy harvesting power sources.

IoT data are streamed from the access point to the target return-to-work application over secure tunnels. ESP applies consistent security policies and provides unified management from a single point of control. Users have the freedom to implement return-to-work options at any time, in both new and existing deployments, without ripping and replacing IT infrastructure.

Return-to-work applications and technology partners include:

• Hoteling space management: Wireless sensors are ideal for managing the availability, occupancy, air quality and cleaning requirements of hoteling spaces. Deuta Controls’ EnoPuck visually identifies if a space is reserved, occupied, available or vacated, while simultaneously monitoring air quality and light levels. Departure of an occupant can automatically trigger a request for cleaning and disinfection.
• Occupancy management: To ensure compliance with social distancing and sanitation protocols, IAconnects’ Mobius Flow application manages people-counter and occupancy sensors to monitor the status of communal areas, such as washrooms, kitchens and meeting rooms. A cleaning threshold feature alerts maintenance when an area requires attention.
• Smart toilet: The smart toilet offering from Nanjing Winshine checks traffic flow and occupancy of toilets in real time. Employees are alerted when the toilets are unavailable, and the application can automatically generate work orders for cleaning and disinfection services.
• Demand-oriented ventilation: Typically used in classrooms, public buildings and offices, Thermokon’s CO₂ sensor contributes to demand-oriented ventilation to reduce the risk of infection. It measures CO₂ within a particular area and activates the ventilation system to meet defined air quality standards. Temperature, relative humidity and volatile organic compound (VOC) sensing will be available later this year.
• Building management: The building management application from Titanium manages lighting, energy and space efficiency during shelter-in-place mandates and when curfews are enforced. Building functions are securely and remotely controlled via a web-based application.

“The simplest, most automated and cost-effective way to implement return-to-work safety initiatives is by deploying data-driven smart solutions on top of existing IT infrastructure,” said Michael Tennefoss, vice president of IoT at Aruba. “Because of their ubiquitous deployment throughout enterprises, in locations that are ideal for wireless sensor communications, Aruba access points are ideal on-ramps for return-to-work IoT devices. As monitoring and safety requirements change over time, additional IoT devices can be added by tapping into the EnOcean Alliance, a vast ecosystem of vendors that have developed interoperable, self-powered wireless sensors. Armed with this technology, organisations can re-open with confidence today using a future-proof platform that is ready for what lies ahead.”