CARRIER WI-FI SERVICES
The Carrier Wi-Fi Services program develops solutions and guidelines to improve customer experience on Carrier Wi-Fi networks by eliminating barriers and improving the service experience of end-users.
PROGRAM BREAKDOWN
1.1 Services Enablement, Develop Guidelines and Standardization
Wi-Fi Calling
With the recent support from leading device vendors for Wi-Fi calling, Vo-LTE and Vo-Wi-Fi integration, the momentum for Wi-Fi calling in the industry is rapidly increasing. To provide service providers more confidence in deploying Wi-Fi calling, this project will develop a harmonized Wi-Fi architecture that can be used to demonstrate best practice deployments.
Wi-Fi Deployment Guidelines / NGH Provisioning Standardization
Supporting widespread Wi-Fi adoption and growth, the industry needs to improve service experience for (customer) devices to discover NGH networks and related services, to associate automatically and securely, and for devices to be provisioned with network access credentials with minimal user interaction and use the service without delay.
The project will develop an industry standard approach for onboarding of device clients (e.g. new clients joining the network for the rst time) independently of the device characteristics.
Quality of Service on Carrier Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi Standards are evolving with Carrier Grade Wi-Fi deployments, which aim to improve service experience for customers using Wi-Fi networks. Evolution of existing services and proliferation of new services is causing the industry to emphasize on the quality of experience to the end user.
The objective of the workgroup is to identify the minimum set of requirements that operators would like to have for Wi-Fi QoS.
Convergence of Cellular and NGH networks – ANDSF/ HS2.0 Policy
To improve and innovate the service experience for customers when using Wi-Fi and cellular networks and to provide the best experience possible to their customers, policy is becoming a key tool for operators to manage networks.
This project consists in a white paper to facilitate the understanding and identify challenges that operators face to implement solutions for policy, particularly integrating 3GPP ANDSF & Passpoint Release 2.
Location-Based Services (LBS) and Advertising
Indoor Location-Based Services over Wi-Fi networks have become very important for many venues globally, where Wi-Fi networks are already available. At the same time, the industry will need to explore new business opportunities and foster the ecosystem expansion.
The project aims to identify the opportunities and use cases for operators and various venues for Indoor Wi-Fi based analytics, and to provide a guideline for an end-to-end system enabling the Wi-Fi based analytics solution and develop a minimum set of requirements.
Security & Privacy over Wireless Networks
Confidence levels around the security of Wi-Fi networks are quite low, an issue that the industry needs to address.
This project aims to write a white paper to facilitate the understanding and identify challenges that service providers and vendors need to address to bring security to various services, especially those offered over untrusted Wi-Fi networks.
1.2 End-to-End Interoperability, Field Trials, and Roaming
Carrier Wireless Services Trial
Carrier Wireless Services Trial include, as baseline, test cases to assess WRIX and NGH authentication, evolving to a new layer of services testing, including Quality of Service, Policy Interworking (ANDSF & HS2.0) and Wi-Fi Calling.
This effort will enable the industry to test new services key that are key for their businesses.
WBA Roaming Standards
WBA is the primary organization addressing Wi-Fi roaming related topics in the industry. All roaming documentation / information is maintained by this group and aligned with the most up-to-date industry developments.
These standards help WBA members to grow their roaming business by providing the necessary tools to facilitate interconnections.
A new document is being added and developed to the portfolio WRIX-n (network) – This document is to help operators avoid some of the network configuration pitfalls and shorten the operator learning experience.
Testing & Interoperability Umbrella Group
Objectives include: improving customer experience on NGH networks by eliminating barriers (devices and infrastructure), and giving more confidence to service providers to invest in NGH and device vendors to develop support NGH.
1.3 Services Certification and Compliancy
Carrier Wireless Services Certification
WBA have launched Carrier Wireless Services Certification (CWSC) testing program for members (and sponsor partners) providing unprecedented capabilities to test the end-to-end Public WLAN ecosystem to guarantee that the service operation and user experience is consistent.
For Carriers, the CWSC program offers the ability to test and validate their wireless services instead of performing in- testing.
For Technology Providers, the program offers them a platform to validate carrier requirements from a range of different service providers, to reduce time to market and expedite sales efforts as well as save valuable testing resources.
Tests are run based on the same principles of the Next Generation Hotspot (NGH) Trials but they are now run on independent fashion by recognized testing labs in equal scenario as performed on the different phases of the NGH Trials.
WBA have been championing NGH Trials since 2011 – its outputs (use cases, test plans and trial reports) have been widely spread across the industry – and based on these outputs several improvements have been made to create a valuable continuous testing program for the Carrier Wi-Fi industry.
Currently, the program is entailed to support Wi-Fi Roaming, Wi-Fi Offload, Wi-Fi Calling (WIP), Quality of Service (WIP), among others being defined.
To find out more about the program click here
Interoperability Compliance Program
ICP is an initiative that makes it easier for operators globally to work together on a common set of technical and commercial frameworks for Wi-Fi roaming. Public Wi-Fi is increasingly being viewed by operators as an essential component for mobile connectivity.
ICP testing helps carrier networks position themselves as an industry benchmark to grow business and fast-track roaming deployments, and helps significantly reduce time to market for new roaming agreements.
