OpenWiFi is a community-developed, open-source platform designed to lower the cost of developing and operating Wi-Fi networks
Following the recent news that CableLabs and Telecom Infra Project (TIP) successfully validated new interoperable hardware and software and “refreshed” the OpenWiFi Community Lab, RCR Wireless News spoke with Jack Raynor, co-chair of the OpenWiFi program group at TIP and Josh Redmore, principal architect of wireless access technologies for CableLabs to learn more about how the entities are working together to foster an open, disaggregated Wi-Fi environment, as well as what benefits lie ahead for consumers and businesses.
OpenWiFi, launched by TIP in 2021, is a community-developed open-source platform designed to lower the cost of developing and operating Wi-Fi networks. It includes a cloud controller SDK and an enterprise-grade access point (AP) firmware and is designed and validated to work seamlessly together. Current commericial deployments include Boingo Wireless in the U.S., Spectra in India and Multinet Pakistan.
OpenWiFi also work seamlessly with OpenRoaming — the standard now controlled by Wireless Broadband Alliance, which allows seamless Wi-Fi onboarding from location to location without the need for logins or passwords. Raynor summed up the relationship between the two: “OpenRoaming is the tech standard that WBA has come up with, and OpenWiFi will implement it as a feature.”
“At the end of the day, managed Wi-Fi is good Wi-Fi,” said Redmore. He explained that a single, unmanaged Wi-Fi access point works great if the user is a single-unit dwelling and is located far away from other users, but when it comes to dense environments, like apartment buildings, an extra layer of management is needed to avoid interference and conflict to achieve the “optimal Wi-Fi experience.”
And for CableLabs, OpenWiFi represents another option in deploying this much-needed managed Wi-Fi, while leveraging the benefits of disaggregation, particularly for its members in the cable industry. “We represent half a billion people getting on the internet and there’s no one right way to deploy Wi-Fi for that many people, and there is certainly no one vendor that can supply that many people,” he said.
‘Deeper’ interoperability
According to Redmore, OpenWiFi offers a “deeper” level of interoperability than typically considered. Historically, he said, interoperability in Wi-Fi referred to how an access point or router can talk to a variety of connected devices, such as a thermostat or smartphone. However, he explained: “This is really sort of a new iteration of interoperability because it is the access point talking to a cloud controller and those interoperable connections between different vendors.”
Raynor added that OpenWiF is 802.11-compliant and abides by all the industry specs, so from that perspective, it is just like any other Wi-Fi device. “Then from the access point to the control, which is what we’re trying to disaggregate, we have built one SDK with a set of micro services that is built on the uCentral communication layer… and we have one set of firmware that gets applied to all access points regardless of who the manufacturer is so that ensures interoperability,” he said.
Several hardware manufacturers like ActionTec, EdgeCore, HFCL, Indio Networks and Lindsay Broadband, and software cloud controllers companies HFCL, NetExperience, Wavespot, and Indio Networks are already participating in the new trial and OpenWiFi Community Lab, all with the aim of achieving interoperability, and in doing so, lower the cost of Wi-Fi for the entire community.
“For all consumers and businesses [Open WiFi] makes Wi-Fi more accessible,” Raynor further offered. “Want to give people who deploy enterprise Wi-Fi more choices and opportunity; it’s cost effective; and it gives everyone an equal seat at the table to try to get bugs fixed and to try to deploy new features… faster.”
