Hotspots
The eyes and ears of your tracking network. Hotspots detect Bluetooth signals from your tags and relay them to the Blecon cloud, where the positioning engine turns those signals into precise locations. Choose dedicated hardware (a hub) for consistent indoor coverage, or turn any phone or tablet into a mobile hotspot for flexible, on-the-go detection.
"Hotspot" is the general word. It covers a hub, a phone running the Blecon Agent, and a third-party access point brought in through an integration. Use "hub" only for the fixed hardware.
Types of hotspots
| Type | Description | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Hubs | Dedicated hardware mounted in your facility | Consistent indoor coverage |
| Mobile hotspots | Phones, tablets, laptops, or vehicles running the Blecon Agent | Extending coverage, outdoor areas |
How hotspots work
Hotspots are simple relays. They continuously scan for Bluetooth tag signals, measure the signal strength (RSSI), and forward everything to the Blecon cloud along with the hotspot's own location. The cloud decides what's relevant and calculates tag positions.
Hotspots don't pair with tags, don't hold encryption keys, and don't decrypt tag data. Security is between the tag and the cloud, so there's zero security configuration at the edge and no risk from a compromised hotspot.
Managed hotspots
Note
Registration and monitoring is currently available for hubs only. Mobile hotspot management is not yet supported.
Any hotspot that connects to the Blecon cloud is automatically detected, but it operates anonymously: the system uses whatever location the hardware self-reports (GPS, WiFi, or cellular).
When you register a hub to your account, it becomes a managed hotspot. This gives you:
- Location overrides: Set exact coordinates (GPS, local x/y/z, or floor) that take priority over the hub's self-reported location. This is the most accurate positioning option.
- Network zone assignment: Assign a hub to a network zone so any tag it detects is placed in that network zone, enabling room-level presence.
- Alias: Give the hub a human-readable name (e.g. "Warehouse B — Aisle 3").
- Online/offline monitoring: The system checks registered hubs every 15 minutes and marks them offline if they stop reporting.
Registering a hub
Register hubs in Blecon Track: select Hubs under Network in the sidebar and choose Add Hub. You can also register programmatically via the Tracker API:
POST /tracker/api/workspaces/{workspace_id}/hotspots
Hub management requires the Enterprise tier.
A hub can only be registered to one account. A newly registered hub shows as Pending until its first status report arrives. Hubs report every 15 minutes, after which the status becomes Online or Offline.
Hotspot location
For positioning to work, hotspots need to know their own location. The system uses this priority order:
- Managed hotspot configuration: Coordinates you set manually. Always used when available. Most accurate.
- GPS/reported location: Location from the hotspot's GPS, WiFi, or cellular. Used for unmanaged hotspots or managed hotspots without a manual override.
For a registered hub, you can set:
- GPS coordinates (latitude/longitude): For multi-building or outdoor deployments.
- Local coordinates (x/y/z in meters): For indoor floor plans with a local reference frame.
- Floor: Building floor number for multi-storey deployments.