Tiny Anyfi Networks in Sweden has just stepped out of stealth development with what it hopes will be a way to greatly accelerate the adoption of home based wi-fi clouds as metropolitan mobile broadband networks. It calls itself Anyfi, because unlike previous attempts at using home wi-fi such as FON, it can make any wi-fi access point operate as part of any other network, any wi-fi network, hence Anyfi.
These home based systems can create a contiguous, dense wi-fi cloud in metropolitan areas, which can work with existing handsets and pure wi-fi devices like the Apple iPod Touch, handheld gaming controllers and of course the non-3G iPad.
Anyfi will now target two types of fixed line network ‘ both cable and fixed DSL ‘ chasing the idea that their existing wi-fi access points in domestic homes can be used as either public hotspots or for cellular offload. In the first instance cable operators can go down this route instead of taking an MVNO or buying up cellular spectrum in order to offer portability. And at the same time they might offer the services of their fixed line network to cellular operators for offloading data applications like viewing video.
Of course this is only going to make sense where these networks aren’t violently opposed to one another, for instance through wi-fi roaming deals with multiple regional cable operations where they mostly don’t compete with one another.
Anyfi.net works by splitting the IEEE 802.11 MAC layer into three parts; a thin real-time layer implemented in the access point, a management layer implemented in a remote access server and a cloud based matchmaking service to connect the previous two. Working together they make it possible to distribute an unlimited number of virtual Wi-Fi networks, through a single heterogeneous infrastructure.
One application, the company says, is for enterprises to host the Anyfi software layer so that corporate guests can be accommodated at the company access points. Data from guest networks is encrypted and sent via full VPN encryption back to the originating network by the cloud based matching services of Anyfi. There is no danger to the local network of being infiltrated or picking up malware because the encrypted data from any guest network has its own VPN tunnel created for it back to the original network.
The visitor get the impression they are connected to their enterprise network, while the hosts feel the same. It’s the same in the home, even when the service is spilling out into the street and is used by passersby. This is one of the main advantages over FON, says Johan Almbladh, one of the two founders of the company.
‘The problem with the FON approach is that an operator cannot really guarantee that it will have no negative impact on the home user, so they use an opt-in approach. This results in a crippled Wi-Fi network that is only a fraction of the operators original footprint.
‘They have the problem of tedious portal login procedures for each part of the network. It is also branded as a FON service instead of being White Label.’ The Anyfi system uses active bandwidth allocation to guarantee that it has no negative impact on the home user and mostly opts for using access points with most spare capacity.
Almbladh also points out that cable operators are only using about 1% to 2% of their wi-fi capacity at any point in time and this is the most readily available source of spare wireless capacity. Last week we wrote about three of the US cable operators working together on a wi-fi roaming agreement in the New York Metropolitan and surrounding areas and this technology can be used to support similar roaming agreements.
We can see the potential here for cable operators to begin partnering cellular operators in a ‘tit for tat’ kind of way. They might take an MVNO which requires them to pay the cellular operator for capacity used, but at the same time allow the cellular operator to offload data heavy activities to the Wi-Fi network, without any consumers being aware they are ever off the cellular network. The offload activities can be counted up in the hosted Anyfi management suite in the cloud, and the MVNO activities in the cellular management software and the two offset against one another, and only the difference paid.
Of course that won’t work in places like the Netherlands, where KPN has been systematically hunting down the video customers of the cable operators Ziggo and UPC, who are now jointly acquiring cellular spectrum to offer a full quad play (see Faultline last week). But even here it might have worked with one of the other cellular operators such as Vodafone, which has no fixed line network in the Netherlands.
We can certainly see that in Germany, where there are regional cable operators, in multiple ownership hands, but which don’t compete with one another, it could easily work. The German cablcos could fix up Anyfi to roam and effectively cover much of the metropolitan areas of Germany overnight with a new wi-fi network. The cable operators could then all operate separate wi-fi networks, but also MVNO networks to offer quad play. This would pit them aggressively against the Deutsche Telekom incumbent.
It would be faintly ridiculous if Comcast was to offer cellular offload capability to help AT&T out of its iPhone problem using this kind of set up, but it made us snigger at the thought of the offer being made.
Anyfi Networks is a privately held company located at the Ideon Science Park in Lund, Sweden and it has been working on this problem since 2006 with the aim of providing cellular operators with flat rate, offloaded broadband.
It also has a trial Malm’ under the brand name Myfi.net, and although it won’t say how many access points are in Myfi.net there are about 250 friends of Myfi.net on Facebook, so they are probably its users.
The system is available for license and uses automated WPA security, and the company says that existing wi-fi enabled handsets would need to log on just once, in order to use an Anyfi network permanently as a default.