New WiFi Service analytics
In recent months, Cloud4Wi has significantly expanded its onboarding capabilities across various channels, including Captive Portals, mobile apps, online onboarding portals, and more. These enhancements encompass a wide array of technologies, such as WPA2 Enterprise and Passpoint.
We are introducing a new WiFi analytics dashboard that incorporates additional filtering and breakdown functionalities for onboarding channels and technologies to align with the current state of onboarding capabilities.
Furthermore, recognizing that many clients organize their networks into regional groups, brands, regions, and operational units, we have implemented the capability to filter reports using location tags. This empowers you to segment the network with great flexibility and access relevant reports.
We've also streamlined the metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to focus on those that provide the most value to the user. For instance, we observed that a majority of user connections are distributed across multiple RADIUS accounting sessions, particularly when using Passpoint. Therefore, accounting sessions and the associated analytics measurements often result in less accurate data. The new dashboard predominantly measures its main KPIs based on the active user, providing more precise insights into how users utilize the WiFi service.
Passpoint onboarding via Captive Portal
Recently, the WiFi Alliance has decided to remove the requirement for supporting the OSU (Online Sign Up) portal as part of Passpoint certification. This change was prompted by the low adoption rate of the OSU portal across the ecosystem. The OSU was originally designed as the native mechanism for Passpoint R2 certification, facilitating user enrollment in Passpoint while connected to the WiFi network in a "walk-up" use case.
The WiFi Alliance is actively working to identify a replacement technology by the end of 2025.
As a result, the Captive Portal has emerged as the most viable solution for allowing users, especially those without alternative connectivity, to onboard into Passpoint while on-site. Users can be encouraged to download a Passpoint profile as part of the Captive Portal onboarding process. While devices do not automatically switch from the hotspot network to the Passpoint network (unless done manually), future returning users will benefit from a seamless and secure network transition to Passpoint.
To enhance this process, we have introduced a new feature that enables the design of interstitial pages within the Captive Portal journey. These pages invite users to enroll in Passpoint at desired locations.
It's important to note that the user experience differs significantly between Android and iOS. In Android (version 10+), users can download the profile with a single click while still in the captive portal state, just before network authorization (the Android captive network assistant browser closes automatically once the device is authorized). In iOS, which keeps the CNA browser open after network authorization, the page prompting enrollment in Passpoint is presented as a landing page, and the user completes the enrollment in Safari.
SAML connector
While most guest WiFi deployments are primarily intended for customers and visitors, it's quite common for staff and employees to also utilize the guest WiFi network for connecting their personal, unmanaged devices.
To address this, we have introduced a SAML connector capable of integrating with a wide range of corporate Identity Providers (IdPs), including Azure AD, Google Workspaces, Okta, Auth0, and more, through the SAML protocol. This integration facilitates the authentication of employees and staff on the onboarding portal, allowing for the provisioning of dedicated access policies and the segregation of reports and analytics.
The SAML login component can be easily deployed via the Login Profile on any Splash Page, whether it's used as a captive portal or an online onboarding page for Passpoint.
Campaigns
Traditionally, our Campaign tool exclusively operated on contacts with the default marketing opt-in set to true, and it automatically appended a default footer to every email to ensure compliance with regulations governing promotional communications.
With this release, we are expanding the functionality of Campaign to serve as a versatile transactional messaging tool. It now has the capability to send messages to all users, without the strict requirement of the "marketing" opt-in, and it offers the flexibility to exclude the marketing footer.
Within the targeting step of your Campaign, you can now directly configure targeting options based on user consent. Additionally, you have the option to remove the default marketing footer and create your own footer directly within the email content.
Returning user experience
Previously, whenever users reconnected to the same hotspot's network after their initial connection, they were consistently prompted to visit the Splash Page if they hadn't provided certain optional information configured in the signup forms. This approach aimed to gradually maximize the collection of user data.
However, this approach had an adverse impact on the user experience, as it involved a continuous series of prompts, which disrupted the possibility of leveraging Auto Connection capabilities for a seamless reconnection experience.
With this new release, we are changing this logic. Moving forward, users will no longer be prompted to revisit the Splash Page in order to supply missing optional information. The Splash Page will now be presented only when administrators modify the opt-in version and explicitly select the option to gather updated consent when a user reconnects.
Minor changes
- Introduced a built-in field to collect Nicaraguan personal ID with embedded format validation
- Introduced a built-in field to collect Guatemala personal ID with embedded format validation
- Introduced APIs to add/remove/edit Locations and Access Points