In a ringing endorsement, the TIP has officially adopted the Wireless Broadband Alliance’s (WBA) OpenRoaming spec as the basis for its new OpenWiFi standard. The move builds on the WBA’s attempts to bring convergence between the WiFi and cellular worlds, to create seamless handovers between networks, and much improved customer experiences.
As a quick refresher, the Telecom Infra(structure) Project, to use its full name, was founded in 2016. Notably, Facebook was an influential founder, and a core focus has been to adopt general purpose equipment running specialist software, to replace the bespoke appliances that traditionally ran telecoms networks.
To this end, its OpenRAN working group has been the most prominent wing of TIP, but work in millimeter wave (mmWave), as well as more general power and installation concerns, have taken up much of the TIP’s effort. The membership list contains all the usual suspects, spanning vendors, operators, and cloud computing and networking specialists.
Back in January, we covered a report by the WBA, outlining how WiFi 6 and 5G convergence is an immense opportunity for the operator crowd – but one that needs to be carefully managed. In that discussion, the WBA’s OpenRoaming project was pointed to, as a key next step, as it can create a ‘cloud federation’ between networks that would handle the handover as devices moved between operator infrastructure – be that cellular or WiFi.
Well, here we are, only a few months later, and the TIP seems to have given the approach a ringing endorsement. Given the membership of the TIP, it seems that the Wireless Roaming Intermediary Exchange (WRIX) standard that served as the foundation for OpenRoaming is now going to be incorporated into the TIP’s OpenWiFi.
The central premise here is that a user will have a common identity, managed by that aforementioned cloud federation. Once we know who that person is, and what devices they are present on, we can then ensure that these devices are prioritized according to specific quality of service parameters.
For instance, if that user is watching a video on a public WiFi network, we want to ensure that the stream is not interrupted when they jump from WiFi to a cellular network. In this example, the video service provider has a commercial desire to make sure that the video quality is as good as possible – for fear that the customer gets upset with the poor image and cancels their subscription.
However, the WiFi network operator and the MNO have less of a stake in that concern. Sure, they want to make sure that the user doesn’t think their network is trash, but at the same time, they are trying to make sure that all the users of the network are getting the best possible experience – and that is a balancing act.
Of course, this opens the door for commercial agreements to be made, using that common identity to tie certain quality of service agreements to. For instance, Netflix might sign a carriage deal with Telefonica, to ensure subscribers get prioritization.
You are quite right; that sounds like paid prioritization and a net neutrality headache, but that’s a bridge that will be crossed in time. There are many MNOs and ISPs that are expanding into providing video services, which you can fairly easily imagine would lead us to a world where the larger networks will consolidate around something that looks like the peering agreements that the Tier One ISPs use to settle traffic carriage.
On a more practical level, it should also allow for MNOs, ISPs, and WiFi network operators to reach agreements that would let a user seamlessly transition from each physical network. Again, some form of commercial agreement is going to be needed, but the technology that would underpin it seems likely to now stem from the influence of the TIP.
To this end, the OpenWiFi stack is focused on the access points (APs) and the cloud computing systems that coordinate them. The Cloud Controller SDK deals with the latter, while the former is managed by specialist firmware. The TIP says that both are open source, and freely available to AP OEMs.
There is, of course, an OpenWiFi logo that will denote compatibility, and we suspect that money is going to change hands as part of that testing and certification process. Currently, CIG, TP-Link, and Edgecore Networks have 14 AP designs available between them, with Adtran, Benu Networks, Indio Networks, Kloudspot, NetExperience, Plume, Plumeria Networks, and VVDN Technologies are listed as the initial commercial software and service providers.
As part of the launch, the TIP held a mammoth 8-hour event, for which we tuned in to hear a panel discussion concerning the collaboration between the WBA and the TIP. Tiago Rodrigues, the WBA’s CEO, was moderating, and was joined by Mike Penney, SVP of American Bandwidth, Raj Gajwani, Director of the recently launched Orion WiFi roaming service at Google, Khetan Gajjar, Executive Head of Fixed and Mobile for Vodacom, and Kishore Raja, Boingo’s (recently acquired by Digital Colony for $854 million) VP Engineering Strategy.
Rodrigues started by saying that the collaboration between the WBA and TIP, over the past few months, has been a fantastic experience. We then dove into a video outlining the difference in anticipated user experiences, trying to log into a public WiFi network, dealing with the login and terms and conditions, and the general unpleasantness involved.
The video handover was a bit clunky, but the message was correct. However, whether the OpenWiFi experience will run as smoothly as promised in the field, of course, remains to be seen. Unfortunately, we lost the feed for a few minutes, so we dropped in again with the conversation in full flow.
Gajwani, responding to an audience question about the business model, explained that Google thinks heterogenous networks are the future – and that the current model of deploying standalone private WiFi networks are anathema to this. OpenWiFi lets you create a control plane that spans across these islands, to give operators the ability to get their subscribers on the best available network.
Rodrigues asked Penney if OpenWiFi could be a new revenue opportunity for large enterprises, with Penney pointing to retail environments lacking good cellular signals. WiFi is already there, and installing cellular via DAS is too expensive, so as 99% of shoppers are bringing their smartphones into the store, the WiFi network is a way for the store itself to provide instant connectivity for the shopper – and build loyalty programs and marketing data on top of that connection.
Raja built on this, saying that if these sorts of deployments are as easy as they are expected to be, all businesses should take this opportunity in a heartbeat. He added that once you have such a system deployed in a venue, OpenWiFi’s software-based management should allow for much easier maintenance and upkeep. Pointing to the arrival of an airplane full of passengers, as a concrete use case, Raja explained how you can use the control plane to prevent background apps waking up and crippling the APs near the surge of passengers.
Gajwani stressed that he wants to see the audience to adopt OpenWiFi, pointing to Google’s Orion WiFi portal as a way to turn on OpenWiFi in about 30 minutes. Gajjar pointed to Vodacom’s desire for OpenRoaming profiles being placed on handsets by default, for both settlement (paid) and settlement-free (free) users, so that operators are able to manage and provision these devices out of the box. Rodrigues added that the WBA is working on this, and hopes for some news in the next few months.
Penney’s final point was a long-term need for simple and easy indoor GPS, where we don’t have to buy shiny new boxes and carry out mapping and calibration, that would be a huge boon to enterprise applications. Airports and large shopping malls would be the next frontier.
Raja added that adoption is key, and looking at combination of OpenWiFi and OpenRoaming, where Google’s Orion marketplace get to prove the largescale capabilities of all these devices. Once WiFi can prove the potential, Raja hopes it would extend to 5G too.