The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) was formed in 2003 to enable a seamless and interoperable Wi-Fi experience across the global wireless ecosystem. The key objective of the alliance was to bring together multiple stakeholders – such as telecom providers, technology vendors and enterprises – to work on areas such as industry guidelines, pilot projects, standards to promote end-to-end services and drive adoption in Wi-Fi, 5G, IoT and others.
WBA OpenRoaming™
Ecosystm Principal Advisor, Ashok Kumar says, “Wi-Fi has gained increasing popularity worldwide over the last two decades and has now become an essential network technology with ubiquitous service that it is utilitarian. However, it has been viewed as a collection of islands of heterogenous networks, requiring re-authentication each time a mobile user transits from one network and re-connects with another Wi-Fi network, with the associated hurdles of logging back in, making it cumbersome.”
“The lack of interoperability between Wi-Fi networks has been a drawback for service providers, compared to the ease of use associated with global mobile networks, such as 4G, LTE, 5G, and so on, which offer seamless roaming connectivity.”
The WBA OpenRoaming™ initiative was announced last month, to create a globally available Wi-Fi ecosystem that offers a federation of automatic and secure connections for billions of devices to millions of Wi-Fi networks. It provides a new global standards-led approach, removing public-guest Wi-Fi connectivity barriers and brings greater convenience and security to the wireless ecosystem. WBA OpenRoaming™ removes the need to search for Wi-Fi networks, to repeatedly enter or create login credentials, or to constantly reconnect or re-register to public Wi-Fi networks.
Several leading technology companies and telecom service providers have extended support to WBA OpenRoaming™ standards – Samsung, Google, Cisco, Intel, Aptilo, AT&T, Boingo Wireless, Broadcom, Comcast, Deutsche Telekom and Orange to name a few.
“Wi-Fi is arguably the most ground-breaking wireless technology of our time. From the first public Wi-Fi hotspots in the early 2000s which enabled radically increased productivity on the move, through to the role Wi-Fi has in today’s pandemic environment. With WBA OpenRoaming™ we want to revolutionise how individual users as well as businesses engage with Wi-Fi, removing the need to repeatedly log in, re-connect, share passwords or re-register for Wi-Fi networks as we travel locally, nationally or internationally”, said Tiago Rodrigues, CEO of the WBA, “Instead, no matter where we are, the new framework automates how users connect to Wi-Fi while seamlessly aligning to cellular network connectivity. It does so by bringing together a federation of trusted identity providers so that individual users are allowed to automatically join any network managed by a federation member.”
WBA OpenRoaming™ can simplify Wi-Fi, much like the cellular roaming experience. Kumar says, “ The WBA OpenRoaming™, with support from major global service providers, network solution vendors, and authentication & security firms, has the potential to address the issue of seamless interoperability in the Wi-Fi networks ecosystem with ease-of-use and security.”
WBA OpenRoaming™ Framework
The framework and standards are based on cloud federation, consisting of a global database of networks and identities, dynamic discovery and the Wireless Roaming Intermediary Exchange (WRIX); cybersecurity consisting of Public Key Infrastructure a RadSec providing the certificate policy, management and brokerage services; and network automation facilitated by an automated roaming consortium framework and policy and Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Passpoint®*.
The Impact of WBA OpenRoaming™
“Enterprises are expected to benefit enormously from the opportunity to create new commercial business models and innovative services with speed and simplicity,” says Kumar.
Maturing mobile technologies such as 5G and Wi-Fi 6 along with next generation wireless devices, could make OpenRoaming™ more seamless and extend its applications further.
Cisco in particular has been leading the charge with several pilots that showcase the benefits of OpenRoaming™. Earlier this year, it partnered with Oxbotica, an autonomous vehicle software provider, to demonstrate how OpenRoaming™ can unlock the potential of autonomous vehicle fleets, allowing a seamless and secure sharing of high-volume data while on the move.
Last year, Cisco also showcased the benefits of OpenRoaming™ in a pilot at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona with Samsung as the identity provider. Attendees were connected to the network throughout the venue, with connectivity extended to even local train stations and the airport. This unified experience was possible despite the fact that at least three network providers were involved. Pilots such as these gives the industry a glimpse of what benefits lie ahead.
Kumar sees the impact being extended across industries. “The impact of WBA OpenRoaming™ will be in the introduction of innovative services for consumers and enterprise users in public Wi-Fi networks in industries such as Hospitality, Transportation (airport and rail), Retail outlets, Smart City solutions, and local community networks.”
Learn more about WBA OpenRoaming™, visit www.openroaming.org
*Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Passpoint® is a registered trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance
Australia’s data centre market has grown exponentially, to a large part due to the Government’s strong policies around cloud adoption. This is in line with the vision of creating a Digital Economy by 2025. Australia’s Tech Future talks about technological changes in 4 key areas including building infrastructure and providing secure access to high-quality data. Availability of local data centres is key to building better infrastructure to support the Digital Economy.
Cloud adoption, especially in the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector is expected to continue to rise. The Ecosystm Business Pulse Study shows that only 16% of Australian organisations had not increased their cloud investments after the COVID-19 crisis and its impact on the economy.
Ecosystm Principal Advisor, Tim Sheedy says, “The current pandemic has highlighted the digital ‘haves and have nots’ in Australia. The NBN has helped to narrow the gap, but too many in rural and regional Australia continue to suffer the tyranny of distance. Businesses and government departments have been reluctant to relocate outside of the major cities due to the lack of internet and data centre infrastructure. Investing in data centres in rural and regional locations will not only help to close the digital divide but also remove a significant barrier that stops businesses from investing in and relocating to locations out of cities.”
Growing Australia’s Data Centre Footprint
This week, Australia’s Leading Edge Data Centres and Schneider Electric announced a AU$30 million project where Schneider Electric will provide Tier-3-designed prefabricated data centre modules for Leading Edge’s six locations in Australia. Each site will host 75 racks with 5kW power density to support computing operations and minimise data exchange delays. Ecosystm Principal Advisor, Darian Bird says, “The inaccessible nature of some sites makes them suitable for prefabricated data centres, which are plug-and-play containers that can be set up and maintained by a relatively small IT team. Standardisation in edge data centres and automation are key to remote management for anyone deploying distributed infrastructure.”
This announcement follows the news that Leading Edge has secured an investment of AU$20 million from Washington H. Soul Pattinson to construct 20 Tier-3 data centres across Australia. They have also received funding from the SparkLabs Cultiv8 2020 accelerator group. The funding will be used to build more than 20 Tier 3 data centres across regional Australia to provide faster internet speeds and direct cloud connectivity.
This will impact businesses that host mission-critical applications, and stricter uptime requirements, and is expected to benefit IoT, AgriTech and telecom industry applications.
Impact on Industry
Edge connectivity will create a seamless experience for the users to take advantage of faster computing with a local host, lower latency by taking connectivity to where operations reside, and data sovereignty by keeping data within the region, aiding in the development of Australia’s Digital Economy.
Sheedy sees this as an opportunity for primary industries. “One of the real challenges for farms and other agribusinesses investing in IoT and other tech-based solutions has been the lack of local or nearby computing infrastructure that will support applications that require low latency. Leading Edge’s investments in providing data centres in rural and regional Australia will mean these businesses can accelerate their digital transformations.”
With the simultaneous rollout of 5G, Smart City initiatives will also benefit from edge data centres. “Investment in edge infrastructure is likely to take off and follow the 5G coverage map across Australia. We will see operators take advantage of their vast network footprint and combine micro data centres with some 5G antenna locations,” says Bird. “Smart City initiatives will be made possible by 5G connected IoT devices but computing at the edge will be needed to keep, for example, public safety systems, operating in real-time. Many monitoring systems will require local data analysis to be effective.”
Bird also sees potential impacts on the Entertainment industry. “The COVID-19 restrictions and the launch of new services such as Disney+ and Binge in Australia will ensure streaming video continues its impressive growth trajectory. Even facilities such as sports stadiums are beginning to deliver in-person digital experiences to grab back attention from their online competitors. Positive user experience is crucial here and low latency is a must. We’ll see a shift towards edge computing delivered on-site as part of a distributed network. Regional data centres and local caching have always been vital for content delivery to ensure the quality of service and reduce bandwidth costs but the scale is unprecedented.”
Bird talks about potential retail opportunities in the future. “We may see anchor tenants at malls offering their excess capacity to smaller, nearby stores that need the benefits of edge but can’t justify the investment, similar to the way Amazon launched AWS.”