Future Wi-Fi standards and Wi-Fi roaming technologies

The bandwidth allocation of 600 MHz of unrestricted spectrum in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands has neither changed nor expanded since 1997. However, advances in technology and increased demand from users has created a massive growth in the volume of network traffic. As a result, Wi-Fi networks are increasingly suffering from:

Congestion: Wi-Fi devices share the same digital spectrum, with each waiting its turn to transmit and receive data. The number of connected Wi-Fi devices grows by almost 35% each year. Congestion can degrade performance in even the best Wi-Fi networks. Traffic overloading is especially problematic in high-density settings.

Legacy Bottlenecks: Wi-Fi is backwards compatible. This has been key to its success but is also a disadvantage as slower devices are prioritised equally with faster devices. When slotted ahead of a faster device, a slower device impedes overall throughput of the network.

Constrained Channel Width: Wider channels translate into faster speeds; the 80 MHz and 160 MHz channels supported under current Wi-Fi standards offer high throughputs. However, many of these channels are non-contiguous and constrain throughput.

The Wi-Fi standards have developed through Wi-Fi 6/6E and 7 to address these constraints and the spectrum allocated for Wi-Fi will increase for Wi-Fi 7. Collectively, this enhances or enables a number of use cases for the health and care sector

Table 7. Features of Wi-Fi 6, 6E and 7

Telemedicine

Health care facilities and medical doctors are increasingly dependent on video conferencing to communicate with patients. This method of health care delivery was used widely during the Covid-19 Pandemic and as a result, many patients and doctors now prefer telemedicine to in-person visits to health facilities. The high bandwidth provision of Wi-Fi 6/6E and the non-contiguous bandwidth, extremely high throughput, and fast data rates which Wi-Fi 7 supports provides the platform for effective telemedicine or telemedicare delivery. These Wi-Fi standards provide compatibility for compatible video conferencing devices, phones, laptops, and even Extended Reality (XR) devices for seamless conferencing with patients. Furthermore, WPA3 is standard on these technologies to provide enhanced security and compliance with privacy regulations.

Internet of Things (IoT)

Most wireless IoT devices run Wi-Fi 5 at best. When thousands of these devices share a network, they can crowd channels and clog up the wireless spectrum. This creates a poor experience for all users of the network. An increasing number of medical devices communicate using Wi-Fi. Equipment such as X-Ray and MRI machines that connect to the Wi-Fi network can consistently push several gigabytes of data at a time. The health industry is turning to Wi-Fi 6/6E and 7 to enable the most critical devices. The new Wi-Fi standards offer clear channels and spectrum that almost eliminates co-channel interference while adding more bandwidth and higher throughput to optimise performance. They also free up spectrum and channels, giving IoT devices better performance in the lower bands.

Smart phones

Health and care providers can provide staff with smart phones for their ability to offer more than just voice calls. Caregivers use them for video chat, to view medical images, to interact with medical devices, for location tracking and more. These phones primarily connect to Wi-Fi and as a result need clean spectrum to provide the best results. Wi-Fi 6/6E and 7 networks and compatible devices give healthcare staff the power they need to access mission critical applications as they move around and care for patients.

Future Wi-Fi roaming technologies

The next generation of Wi-Fi roaming is being developed to provide more efficient and seamless connectivity for users across multiple networks. The current roaming technology used by Wi-Fi networks relies on authentication protocols such as 802.1X and RADIUS to authenticate users and grant them access to a network. However, these protocols can be slow and cumbersome, leading to delays and interruptions in connectivity as users move from one network to another.

To address these issues, the next generation of Wi-Fi roaming technology is being developed to provide faster and more seamless connectivity. There are two leading standards: Passpoint and OpenRoaming.

Passpoint

Passpoint is a networking protocol developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) with the purpose of allowing users to roam between wireless networks as they travel around a campus or through a city by constantly swapping to closer, stronger networks to avoid interruption in service. It typically deals with the transition between cellular data and Wi-Fi networks, attempting to rely less on cellular data. These networks have been pre-approved by the user or their service provider.

With Passpoint, users can securely connect to Wi-Fi networks without having to manually enter login credentials or accept terms and conditions each time they connect to a new network. This is because Passpoint enables the automatic exchange of credentials and security information between the user’s device and the Wi-Fi network.

Passpoint provides enhanced security for Wi-Fi roaming by using the latest and most secure encryption technologies, such as WPA3. Passpoint also provides mutual authentication between the user’s device and the Wi-Fi network, which helps prevent spoofing attacks and ensures that the user is connecting to a legitimate network.

Passpoint also supports the use of EAP-TLS, which is a highly secure authentication protocol commonly used in enterprise Wi-Fi networks. EAP-TLS provides strong authentication and encryption, making it a good choice for organisations that require a high level of security for their Wi-Fi networks.

In addition to these security features, Passpoint also includes support for other security protocols such as 802.1X, which provides access control for Wi-Fi networks, and Certificate Management, which enables the secure exchange of digital certificates between devices and networks.

OpenRoaming

The OpenRoaming standard was originally developed by Cisco but was transferred to the vendor neutral stewardship of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) in 2020. OpenRoaming allows users to securely and automatically connect to participating Cellular and Wi-Fi networks.

OpenRoaming provides users with frictionless Wi-Fi onboarding by linking together access providers (such as public venues, retailers, airports, and large enterprises) and identity providers (such as service provider carriers, devices, and cloud providers). Users need to sign on only once with a trusted identity provider. Afterward they will be automatically connected to OpenRoaming networks whenever and wherever one is available.

The OpenRoaming Federation is made up of identity providers including device manufacturers, cloud providers, and Wi-Fi access providers such as retailers, hotels, and large venues to enable customers to connect automatically. This Wi-Fi connection will be secured using WPA2 protocols and encrypted authentication.

802.11ax Solution - OpenRoaming: Seamless, Secure Public Wi-Fi Onboarding At-a-Glance - Cisco

OpenRoaming - Wireless Broadband Alliance

Comparing Passpoint and OpenRoaming

Both OpenRoaming and Passpoint are 802.11u networking protocols that enable network infrastructures to communicate and cooperate with one another.

Passpoint was released in 2012 and is widely supported. Most mobile devices come preconfigured for Passpoint support. Larger service providers have interoperability agreements, which allow their customers to roam on partner networks, greatly expanding the range of Wi-Fi networks they can access and reducing the number of devices that need to be supported by the cell towers.

The second release of Passpoint (r2) made great improvements in user onboarding. The introduction of OSU (online signup) and remediation servers made it easy for users to enrol themselves and troubleshoot sign-up issues.

OpenRoaming is based on Passpoint. However, Passpoint is focused on local roaming and direct network partnerships. OpenRoaming targets a broader geographical area. Instead of using local networks as an intermediary to reach a home RADIUS server, OpenRoaming uses federated directories to allow trusted networks to authenticate the user locally.

OpenRoaming allows mobile devices to find and connect to trusted Wi-Fi networks automatically. This method is secure and ensures that users do not connect to unsafe networks while traveling. OpenRoaming is made possible by federation directories that can be joined free of charge. The OpenRoaming federation pairs identity providers (such as Google credentials) with Wi-Fi access providers.

OpenRoaming adheres to Passpoint standards. The two standards are compatible and OpenRoaming is intended to be used alongside Passpoint. While OpenRoaming can be used without Passpoint, it is largely built upon the first release of Passpoint (r1) and operates much better when used in the same ecosystem. OpenRoaming has recently developed an integration for the latest release of Passpoint (r3) that further expands its capabilities.

Deploying Passpoint, OpenRoaming or a combination of the two is relatively straightforward from a WPA2-Enterprise network with certificate-based authentication. Deployment is more complex otherwise.

Roadmaps describe how vendor Wi-Fi roaming solutions will be changed over the short, medium and long term to meet strategic objectives. They help client organisations plan the best way to implement these technology changes in their own organisation. Wi-Fi roaming solution roadmaps should explain how and when changes in standards (for example. Wi-Fi 6/6E and 7) and changes in technology (for example Passpoint and OpenRoaming) will be introduced. Client organisations should be able to rely on these published roadmaps as their own strategies may depend upon them.

The GovWifi roadmap

This information was accurate at the time of writing (March 2023). For the latest developments with GovWifi please see About GovWifi - GovWifi Team Manual.

Source: GDS

However, GDS has advised that the published roadmap is subject to change. GovWifi is focussed on central government departments as they provide the funding. The strategy is to provide simple access to the networks of central government departments. The funders and key stakeholders of GovWifi hold one of two 2 competing views about the future of the service. Some believe that the solution should continue to be developed and enhanced, others that the solution is fit for purpose and should be maintained in its current state.

The direction that the roadmap takes (continue development or maintain status quo), will be determined when the results of the certificate-based authentication project are known. Given this uncertainty, the GovWifi Roadmap does not consider new Wi-Fi standards or technologies. There are no plans for Wi-Fi 6 onwards or for Passpoint or OpenRoaming at this stage. The future of GovWifi will be determined by the central government departments that fund the service.

The Govroam Roadmap

Jisc does not currently have a published roadmap for govroam. A roadmap is in development but will not be formally approved or published before this report is completed. However, Jisc has advised that the govroam roadmap consists of the following workstreams:

• data capture from federation operators: a project to improve central visibility of service usage within regional clusters
• mapping portal enhancements: a series of feature adds to the existing mapping portal to improve the accuracy of the venue map and make management easier for users
• dashboards: development of a publicly available dashboard showing key service metrics. This is almost ready to deploy to existing members
• documentation: broad project to review how service documentation is made available, how it is updated 
• admin support portal: project to improve the UI for systems administrators and increase the ability for them to self-serve certain service requests
• OpenRoaming: Developing and launching trials of Jisc roaming services on the OpenRoaming standard

In addition, Jisc has advised that the govroam Roadmap has a workstream that focuses on the Wireless Broadband Alliance Wi-Fi roadmap of which Jisc is a member. Jisc invites govroam users to input on the ongoing development of the system and undertake joint development of the solution. Jisc will consider all developments in Wi-Fi standards and technologies and will introduce these based on customer needs.

For example, Jisc is running an alpha trial of the OpenRoaming Standard. It will reach out to member organisations soon to start Beta Testing. This initiative is speculative, as of March 2023 there was only a very small footprint of OpenRoaming deployments in the UK. However, it is anticipated that in 3 to 5 years the availability of OpenRoaming will be greater and govroam could take advantage of this.

Jisc Edubox

Jisc introduced ‘edubox’ for sister service eduroam in October 2021. At the time of writing Jisc were working with 21 organisations across Higher Education, Further Education and the public sector and plan to work with a further 33 organisations in the beta phase (from 1st March 2023 to the end of June 2023). Five NHS hospitals were  involved in the PoC.

extending eduroam: delivering eduroam through 4G and 5G cellular connectivity on a low-cost flexible device - Jisc

Edubox provides colleges and universities with new ways to connect to the eduroam network, beyond the existing fibre infrastructure, through 4G and 5G mobile data backhaul connectivity.

As of March 2023 Edubox was at Proof-of-Concept stage. It is offered as a Jisc managed cloud service via Cradlepoint’s NetCloud Manager (zero-touch, remote management and reporting), with a secure automated eduroam configuration.

Jisc promote edubox as a cost-effective, fast, agile and secure means for authenticated users to access eduroam through cellular connectivity across the UK.

Each edubox model provides eduroam Wi-Fi cellular connectivity through 4G/5G mobile data backhaul between 25mb – 400mb, depending on locally available mobile network operator (MNO) coverage (EE, Vodafone, Three and VMO2).

Devices in the range include:

• edubox IBR900 - up to 5 concurrent users
• edubox E300 - up to 20 concurrent users
• edubox E3000 - up to 100 concurrent users
• edubox W1850 adapter - support E3000 edubox devices where cellular connectivity inside buildings is proving a challenge
• edubox R1900 - up to 100 concurrent users for in-vehicle use cases

Edubox devices are dispatched with two SIM cards (the strongest MNOs in the area) one as the primary SIM, the second as a failover SIM in case of cellular outage.

Jisc has advised that it is prepared to develop an equivalent solution for NHS and ICB Partner organisations  ‘govbox’. This could be a very significant development for NHS and ICB Partners, as it addresses a number of use cases that the current solutions do not.

Extending govroam: connectivity beyond the fixed fibre network - Jisc

For example, it can provide a temporary solution while locations await an on-site installation, it can provide connectivity in pop up sites such as vaccination centres used during the COVID-19 Pandemic, it can provide a mobile solution for health and care workers when working off site such as in care homes or in service users’ own homes where the network infrastructure is consumer grade and therefore not compatible, and it can provide an in-vehicle solution for connecting first responders and ambulances.

Jisc is developing the edubox solution with Cradlepoint, a US company recently acquired by Ericsson. Cradlepoint provide products and services in the US Healthcare sector that Jisc could leverage for the benefit of UK NHS and ICB Partners - providing roaming solutions for locations, vehicles and IoT in settings such as clinics, pop-ups, hospitals, ambulances, mobile clinics, telemedicine, kiosks and digital signage.