What WBA OpenRoaming is
OpenRoaming is a roaming federation service enabling an automatic and secure Wi-Fi experience globally. With WBA OpenRoaming, we are creating an open connectivity framework for all organizations in the wireless ecosystem to power new opportunities in the 5G era.
Allow millions of users to connect automatically to your network
Cloud4Wi empowers enterprise networks to seamlessly integrate into the OpenRoaming federation by providing the essential technology stack. By activating OpenRoaming capabilities on your access network, you open the doors for millions of users who possess OpenRoaming-enabled Passpoint identities on their devices. These users can effortlessly connect and undergo authentication on your network as soon as they arrive. Implementing this solution will significantly boost the number of visitors connecting to your on-premises WiFi service, ensuring a seamless, secure, and automatic WiFi experience.
Enabling OpenRoaming on your network is straightforward. You simply need to configure an SSID with the appropriate Hotspot 2.0 parameters, including the necessary OpenRoaming Roaming Consortium Operator Identifiers (RCOIs). For instance, by enabling the RCOI "5A03BA0000" on your SSID, any user device with a Passpoint Profile configured with the same RCOI will automatically initiate connection attempts and authentication on your network.
To authenticate these devices, you must configure your network to direct authentication requests to Cloud4Wi RADIUS servers. When a device with a profile provisioned by a third-party Identity Provider (for example, Samsung) connects to your network automatically, the network initiates a RADIUS request to Cloud4Wi RADIUS. Cloud4Wi dynamically identifies the user's Identity Provider (e.g., Samsung) and forwards the RADIUS authentication request (via RadSec) to the respective Identity Provider. Samsung readily accepts these incoming authentication requests, as Cloud4Wi is a registered "entity" within the OpenRoaming federation, equipped with the necessary identities and certificates to establish secure and trusted connections.
While Cloud4Wi's dashboards offer comprehensive monitoring of standard WiFi traffic Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and metrics, such as user counts, session counts, and traffic volume, it's important to note that Cloud4Wi does not possess user identity information, as it does not serve as the identity provider for these users.
Onboard your users into WBA OpenRoaming
Cloud4Wi offers an IdP as a Service solution, empowering both your internal users and customers to seamlessly connect to your network as well as third-party networks within the OpenRoaming federation.
All Cloud4Wi Passpoint onboarding solutions, encompassing the Onboarding Portals and WiFi Software Development Kit (SDK), are designed to facilitate the inclusion of Passpoint profiles for users who wish to connect to specific access networks within the OpenRoaming federation. This is achieved by embedding the requisite Roaming Consortium Operator Identifier (RCOI) within the profile upon request.
When these users venture into third-party OpenRoaming networks and experience automatic connections, any RADIUS authentication requests stemming from those networks are efficiently directed to Cloud4Wi systems. Here, the users undergo authentication and authorization processes for seamless network access.
For instance, the Cloud4Wi toolkit demo app allows individuals to readily download Passpoint profiles that incorporate the OpenRoaming settlement-free RCOI, consequently enabling automatic connectivity to all OpenRoaming networks that broadcast the same RCOIs and admit guest users.
Additionally, OpenRoaming-enabled profiles can be easily obtained via an Onboarding Portal. Explore a publicly accessible onboarding portal officially provided by the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) by clicking on the following link:
https://openroaming.cloud4wi.com
When to consider OpenRoaming
In general, OpenRoaming offers numerous advantages in various scenarios, including:
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Expand Your Users' Connectivity: You can enable your users to seamlessly connect not only to your own network but also gain automatic and secure access to all third-party access networks within the OpenRoaming federation.
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Effortless Visitor Connectivity: OpenRoaming allows you to maximize visitor connectivity by enabling automatic connections to your network upon their arrival, even if their identities are unknown.
Please note: Not all OpenRoaming networks operate on a settlement-free basis. OpenRoaming also supports service scenarios where access networks, while possibly free, may choose to connect only with specific types of users or users associated with particular Identity Providers (IdPs).