Plan to give WLAN users more range nearly done

A plan that would let wireless LAN users roam among service provider networks is in the final stage of preparation by the Wi-Fi Alliance.

The blueprint is a set of best practices for wireless LAN service providers and vendors, as well as carriers. Wireless LAN sites that adhere to these practices will be identified by a new Wi-Fi Alliance symbol - Wi-Fi Zone - created for this project.

Next year corporate users could be able to log on at any public access point, or wireless LAN hot spot, that shows the symbol. Such users will be authenticated through a network of Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) servers before seeing their start-up Web page on the Internet or their corporate intranet.

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A plan that would let wireless LAN users roam among service provider networks is in the final stage of preparation by the Wi-Fi Alliance.

The blueprint is a set of best practices for wireless LAN service providers and vendors, as well as carriers. Wireless LAN sites that adhere to these practices will be identified by a new Wi-Fi Alliance symbol - Wi-Fi Zone - created for this project.

Next year corporate users could be able to log on at any public access point, or wireless LAN hot spot, that shows the symbol. Such users will be authenticated through a network of Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) servers before seeing their start-up Web page on the Internet or their corporate intranet.

The proposal follows last week's WFA announcement of a software fix for most of the biggest security flaws in the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption scheme, which is part of the IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN standard. The security improvement, dubbed Wi-Fi Protected Access, is based on a Microsoft implementation of a draft working its way through the IEEE ratification process.

The Wireless Internet Service Provider Roaming (WISPr) project was announced about 18 months ago. Essentially, the WFA subcommittee was wrestling with the problem of how to make wireless LAN-based services act like cellular telephone services - get access via the nearest carrier, wherever you are, and have all charges appear on one bill from your home carrier.

"The Wi-Fi Zone logo will say to users, 'Here's a place that adheres to these [WISPr] standards,' " says Roy Albert, vice president of product development for iPass, a connectivity software company that partners with 802.11b service providers to create an international roaming service for enterprise customers. "So users will know what to expect in logging on."

Albert predicts that devices eventually will alert users when they come within range of a Wi-Fi Zone access point. If they click on "connect," they'll be connected and the authentication process will begin.

Approved two weeks ago, the WFA document outlines the steps needed for wireless LAN service providers to create a simple, consistent user logon experience. The document outlines a way for users to log on to any WISPr wireless LAN with only a wireless adapter and a Web browser.

The recommendations include a set of attributes to be used in configuring authentication servers and databases based on the RADIUS protocol.

For corporations that want higher security, several appendixes outline optional recommendations. One is the General Interface Specification (GIS), which is a protocol iPass created and is freely available at www.ipass.com/gis. GIS creates a standard way for clients to connect consistently and securely to a range of access gateways, which are the bridges between the wireless access point in a hot spot and the back-end provider networks.

Another appendix outlines the use of public-key infrastructure for encrypting communications links.

The WFA document is being distributed among the membership for review and comment before final public release, probably by year-end.