Event Detail
- Start Date 01/21/2023
- Start Time 06:30 PM
- End Date 01/21/2023
- End Time 08:00 PM
- Location Online
Description:
IEEE Reliability Society is going to host a webinar on “PM WANI – A disagreegated Wi Fi Roaming Architecture to Connect the Unconnected” by Dr. Satya N. Gupta, is to be held on 21.1.23, in association with SRIT STB, IEI ALC, and IEEE Internet Society from 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm.
Dr. Satya N. Gupta, NGNguru
CEng. DIISc. DRP, IRSSE(VR)
Chairman, Bharat IPv6 Forum
Chairman, Blockchain for Productivity Forum
Secretary General, ITU-APT Foundation of India
Chairman, BLUETOWN, India & BIMSTEC, S. Asia
Keywords: PM-WANI (Prime Minister- Wifi Access Network Interface), Disaggregated Architecture. Unbundled Infrastructure, PDOA (Public Data Office Aggregator), Re-association.
Abstract
Access to high speed Internet (Broadband) has become one of the most critical infrastructure for ease of business as well as living, for the economic development of any nation and to achieve the UN SDG’S agenda. But 50% of the world population is still unconnected to the Internet and situation is worse in under developed nation as well as in remote and rural areas. In India out of 850Mn rural population only 45% have access to high speed Internet.
To bridge this long persisting digital divide, Govt. of India in consultation with the regulator and Industry, came out with an innovative unbundled architecture for Internet access to the unconnected masses in a cost-effective and easy to use manner. Providing seamless access to Wi-Fi through Access Points (APs) using PM-WANI Architecture, could be an economical and rapid way of connecting the unconnected throughout the India, especially given the unfeasible business case of rolling out expensive traditional cellular infrastructure in rural areas, plagued with a lower willingness to pay and revenue potential.
PM-WANI to provide significant boost to the I digital India Mission – ubiquitous connectivity, digital inclusion and enabling infrastructure.
The WANI architecture, enables seamless authentication and roaming between different Wi-Fi networks, obfuscating the need for repeated authentication. With convenient one-time authentication, and the benefit of roaming, the model offers greater security & user friendliness to potential consumers. WANI effectively need for only One- Time Passwords that are typically required by public WiFi for egregiously short durations of time.
PM-WANI will also facilitate customer of Public Data Office Aggregator (PDOA) to roam and use his/her data pack in any other network connected with its “Central Registry”. The WANI architecture is completely unbundled and the ‘WANI enabled Wi-Fi Hotspots’ are interoperable. Any customer authenticated by an App provider can use any ‘WANI Wi-Fi Hotspot’ operated by any PDO/ PDOA for accessing the internet. If any two PDOAs intend to enter into a roaming agreement for permitting each other’s customers to access internet from any Wi-Fi Access Points associated with them, then that is also feasible. Any commercial arrangement amongst PDOAs has nothing to do with interoperability for accessing the internet.
Roaming occurs when a wireless client device moves outside the usable range of one wireless access point (AP) and connects to another AP – usually one with a stronger signal. There is no “roaming” issue as far as the AP is concerned. As long as the APs are setup properly, client devices can roam seamlessly from one AP to another.
The issue and challenge comes in the actual “handoff” process, which, according to the IEEE 802.11 standard, is dictated by the client device. The handoff is the process of the client device disconnecting from one AP and then re-associating with another. This process consists of 3 phases:
i. Scanning: As the device moves away from the AP to which it is connected and the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) values begin to drop below certain levels, the client device sends out probe packets to identify AP alternatives. Upon discovery of accessible APs, the device then selects its next AP based on certain criteria, as defined by the device itself.
ii. Authentication: During this phase, the client device sends an authentication request to the new AP and waits for a response from the AP to approve or reject the request.
iii. Re-association: Upon approval by the new AP, the client sends a re- association request and waits for a response. Once the re-association is complete, the new AP sends out a disassociation packet to the old AP so that the routing tables can be updated. The handoff process is now complete.
If APs are properly setup, research has demonstrated that this handoff process typically takes less than 500 milliseconds (less than 1⁄2 second), with the scanning phase contributing to the majority of the delay.
It is also worth mentioning that the scanning phase can be reduced substantially simply by ensuring that only valid wireless profiles are stored on the device. With the handoff process taking less than half a second, why does the delay often seem much longer?
The answer is that roaming is dependent on the client device’s “roam trigger”. In other words, the client decides when it is time to drop one AP and move to another. Some client devices are more sophisticated and do a better job of determining at what point to let go of an AP, while others will measure only RSSI values and may hang on for a longer period of time before triggering a roam to a new AP. This all can be streamlined in WANI architecture while adopting efficient technology or protocols for Wi-Fi roaming which WANI fully supports.
This paper brings out the salient features as well as uniqueness of this open, unbundled, disaggregated, unregulated internet infrastruture architecture to bridge the main missing link of increasing the broadband penetration in rural and remote areas of the world specially the developing nations. In addition, latest developments in Wifi technologies like Wifi6 and Wifi 6e and beyond are also covered.
About the Speaker:
After his post-graduation from IISc. Bangalore, he joined ministry of Communication in 1981 and Ministry of Railways in 1983. He is recipient of Minister of railways award for outstanding performance for the digitalisation project. He received his PhD from CMU, Singapore on 18th December 2021.
A triple master in Electronics Design Technology, IT Management and Telecom Policy and Regulation, he is globally known as “NGNguru” he is a trainer and coach for telecommunication technologies, policy and regulation and a Regulatory advocate. Author of “Everything over IP-All you want to know about NGN”. He also authored a concept called “Job Factory- Converting employment into Entrepreneurship”. His recent research-based work, “Long Tail – Walking the Extra Mile on Rural Broadband Business”, brings out the innovative business models for rural broadband connectivity. He has also established and mentoring a consulting start up named SAAM Corp Advisors providing Govt. Affairs as Managed Service.
He is Honorary Secretary General of ITU-APT Foundation of India. Additionally, he is Vice-President and Trustee of PTCIF and Co-chairs BIF committee on Rural Digital Infrastructure. He founded NGN Forum in India to spread awareness and capacity building in the field of emerging technologies. As a member of Expert panel of Commonwealth Telecom Organisation, he conducts training programs in the areas of NGN Technologies, Broadband Policy and Regulation, Interconnection Costing in NGN Era, Spectrum Management, IPV6, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and Blue-Ocean Strategy. He is first Indian recipient of IPv6 Hall of Fame – 2019 by Global IPv6 Forum and also the Chairman of India IPv6 Council.
Presently, he is working as Chairman, BLUETOWN, India & BIMSTEC, S. Asia to forge newer partnerships and “Making It Happen” its Vision of “Connecting the Unconnected people living in Rural areas of World”.
