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By Chris Bruce, Managing Director, GlobalReach Technology

The last 20 years has seen the case for cellular and Wi-Fi convergence grow stronger

A former colleague of mine posed this rhetorical question more than 10 years ago at an early Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) conference in London.

Can the structured, controlled and methodical world of mobile operators marry with the somewhat anarchic, innovative and unpredictable world of Wi-Fi? Or will they be forever disparate, discrete and dislocated? Will the cellular purists and the Wi-Fi separatists ever see eye to eye?

Recently, I presented at the HTNG (Hospitality Technology Next Generation) Europe Conference in Monte Carlo and the question still remains. Monaco is a place that’s hit the headlines recently for deploying a comprehensive 5G network but, with no disrespect to the principality intended, it is not the largest land mass to cover everywhere. 

This coverage question is a topic I addressed in my session ‘5G is Here Today, but How Can it be EVERYWHERE? followed with a panel moderated by Dayna Kully, 5th Gen Wireless and with Yvette Vincent, Delaware North.

The hype might have us believe that ubiquitous 5G connectivity is here, but for enterprises like hotels, retailers and transport providers who are addressing the challenges and costs of offering wireless internet indoors, should 5G try and be everywhere, when it is possible, more practical and more cost-effective to co-exist with Wi-Fi 6 infrastructure?

There were historic reasons why the two wireless technologies (and cultures) were distinct. Wi-Fi has been called a ‘polite’ technology which grew up in a crowded space of unlicensed spectrum. Wi-Fi devices expect to be in a crowded space and listen to see if other devices are already using the radio band. Cellular, by contrast, has assumed that it ‘owned’ the band that it had licensed and so had no need to give way. It has had a carte blanche to broadcast, filling up fast as more connected devices - and the revolutionary iPhone - hit the market and consumer demand grew.

Popular opinion from the cellular camp was that with each new device launch was that 3G (and subsequently 4G and 5G), would see the end of Wi-Fi. But this has not transpired. Interestingly, Apple first introduced the groundbreaking iPhone as a 'Wi-Fi only' device. Meanwhile, mobile operators who negotiated initial country distribution exclusivity for a 3G and Wi-Fi variant saw a huge uptake in the new smartphone sales and a tremendous upsurge cellular data usage which then began the first attempts at rudimentary 3G offload. I note that again Apple has not been to be first to market with a 5G handset but that the new 11 Pro and Pro Max support Wi-Fi 6.

Today, huge investments are being made in 5G and the hype has seeped through to politicians and the general public. If all stated ambitions are to be believed billions could be spent on 5G networks globally. And yes, 5G certainly has the potential to be truly transformational in certain circumstances - but so has Wi-Fi 6. The fact is that not one cellular generation so far has dampened Wi-Fi’s fire. Quite the reverse.

Every new 'G' has been good for Wi-Fi

As Keerti Melkote, President, Intelligent Edge and Founder, Aruba Networks said, “Every G has been good to Wi-Fi” - sales of Wi-Fi devices have accelerated with each cellular network technology revision and as time has shown, the deep gulf between the two has been bridged increasingly as visionaries from both sides converge in both their underlying thinking, their technologies and cultures. Indeed, developers from both sides have pinched some of each other’s clothes.

Cellular, originally an architecture designed for voice-based services has now become more data-centric and Wi-Fi, a ‘small cell’ data technology which 15 years ago was a best-efforts service, has become more carrier-grade. As cellular has progressed through its generations, so has Wi-Fi.

Small cells means more cells

Radiophysics generally dictates that the smaller cell the higher data speeds can be supported. So achieving the 5G promise will require a substantial if not exponential increase in cell numbers. This will mean an expensive search for sites, along with the associated challenges and costs of site acquisition. Let alone the equipment and backhaul costs.

Why the continued discord?

Like so much in the world, education and misunderstanding are a problem.

Despite technical advancement, ten years after my colleague posed the question, one of the largest European operators at the WBA Wireless Global Congress last month compared Wi-Fi as it was (802.11ac) with 5G New Radio as it will be. The comparison was a puzzle to the Wi-Fi delegates listening, just like comparing Wi-Fi 6 (which available and being deployed today) with 2G. Another impossible red herring.

Among the standards bodies, the battle for unlicensed spectrum also rages. Cellular and Wi-Fi equipment vendors and standards organisations cannot agree on the best use of the 6 GHz band - which offers increased capacity for both. We are close to a point beyond reason, where views are so entrenched and based on IP protection rather than what the operator market might adopt or what’s best for the consumer.

Let’s reframe the conversation

From users’ point of view, they do not care which technology or which bearer carries their data session, just so long as the cost and user experience meet expectations. Our own experience at Global Reach is that the more enlightened operators don’t care either. Here’s why:

Let’s reframe the conversation and make a sensible side-by-side comparison between the current generation of Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi 6) and cellular (5G). When it’s apples versus apples, the spider diagram shows how Wi-Fi 6 devices that are conformant to the IEEE target designs will outperform the 3GPP target designs for 5G New Radio in terms of lower latency, higher user data rates and traffic capacity and equally efficient in terms of spectrum use and connection density.

Yes, cellular outperforms Wi-Fi on mobility and network efficiency, but today’s Wi-Fi 6 is already shipping and is a step change on previous generations of Wi-Fi. The transformational use cases for AI, robotics, augmented reality and virtual reality, digital transformation and business process improvement seem as equally suited to Wi-Fi connectivity as 5G - especially indoors and with low mobility requirements. The concept of edge computing for mobile networks to enable such applications dependent on low latency was originally termed mobile edge computing. This has now been refined to multi-access edge computing, acknowledging the RAN (Radio Access Network) edge may be Wi-Fi or other radio technologies, and not just cellular.

The more open-minded and enlightened mobile operators are building networks where Wi-Fi co-exists with 5G New Radio as part of a heterogeneous RAN - to smooth average equipment and deployment costs, and to provide the best technology to suit the particular use case and target cost point.

Operators have for many years used Wi-Fi for better coverage in dense urban areas and for seamless offload paired with Hotspot 2.0 to deliver a seamless and secure experience without user intervention. Indeed Global Reach first deployed this in an outdoor network in San Francisco and San Jose, California in 2014 and more recently in New York City, offloading terabytes of data daily. And where the backhaul is sufficient for the demand, consumers are receiving a better mobile data experience as a result and in most cases they neither know nor care what technology is being used.

This isn’t a 5G versus Wi-Fi 6 numbers debate, it’s taking the best from both to enhance the user’s experience and operator’s capability.  

Money too tight to mention

In basic Capex (Capital Expenditure) terms, not considering Wi-Fi as part of a next-generation network could hurt mobile operators’ profits.

Marc Allera, CEO of EE, the UK’s biggest mobile operator, publicly stated in the summer of 2019 that despite the clear improvements of 5G over 4G, consumers will not have to pay more for 5G. 

Also in the UK, Mark Evans, CEO Telefonica UK seems to agree. When he launched the O2 5G data plans in October 2019 with a fanfare, the key message was that there would be no premium pricing over their 4G service.

Moreover, experts from the semiconductor industry tell me that 5G chipsets (and the embedded IP) are considerably more expensive than Wi-Fi 6 in terms of basic equipment costs. This added to the difficulties of indoor radio propagation through walls and glass that 5G faces when operating in higher bands, deployment costs seem to be challenging. Then small cells mean more cells and that costs, with the added task of finding and acquiring new sites and provisioning suitable high-speed backhaul.

So, if all the operators deploy 5G and this becomes ‘table stakes’ to compete, and all things being equal, market shares may stay broadly where they are today, then why wouldn’t CFOs challenge the Capex and Opex (Operating Expenditure) costs of a pure 5G network rollout and looks for more cost effective solutions?

At a time when the next generation of network will require a significant Capex investment but with no extra end-user revenue forecast, margins may be dependant on operators trying to minimise costs by using a hybrid network platform. 5G network slicing techniques and Wi-Fi policy management make this smart management possible.

Admittedly through a technique, Ericsson calls Dynamic Spectrum Sharing it has found a neat way to upgrade an existing 4G LTE network with 5G capability as a software drop, thus avoiding a slow and costly ‘truck roll’. The trouble is that will only upgrade the same existing sites and 5G is likely to need many many more. So it’s a good start but it does not solve the outdoor contiguous coverage challenge, let alone tackle indoor coverage.

Meanwhile the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), with its ecosystem of Wi-Fi and cellular operators and the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance, which represents mobile network operators has already produced findings on how 5G New Radio and Wi-Fi 6 might work together in a converged platform to optimise user experience and manage the cost of deploying a new network infrastructure.

In the words of the Wireless Broadband Alliance in its latest whitepaper, Wi-Fi 6 Deployment Guidelines and Scenarios, “While this investment may pay dividends in five (or more) years, with the launch of Wi-Fi 6 in 2019, Wi-Fi is already evolving to meet the growing demand for wireless data.”

Cellular operators and enterprises (such as in hospitality) have the opportunity to take advantage of this convergence now and deliver a best-connected service to their customers and adopt a pragmatic approach to capital spend. Convergence abolished much of what had kept the cellular and Wi-Fi worlds apart. When providing the best customer experience, effective resource management and capital expense control is riding on choosing the right connectivity technologies, it’s time to kick down what remains of the paper walls and embrace Wi-Fi 6 and 5G hybrid networks.

Perhaps 2020 is the year that new age Cellular ‘Romans’ and Wi-Fi ‘Gauls’ can finally work together with the operators and their customers in mind.

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Last month I visited New York where something of a success story is happening. The city’s LinkNYC kiosks, located across five boroughs provide super-fast, free public Wi-Fi, along with other services, for millions of residents, commuters and tourists each day. Latest public figures show that the 1,800 kiosks were seeing up to 20 million sessions from registered users, a week and some 2 billion sessions since launch, where users had munched through some 12 Petabytes (12,300 Terabytes) of data - that's a lot of smartphone mobile data!

But the success story isn’t free public Wi-Fi done at scale, although in a city the size of New York that’s impressive enough itself, it’s the benefits of the Hotspot 2.0 service which is a significant secret sauce in the LinkNYC user experience, but of which most end users are probably unaware. The potential is to go further and help Mobile operators offload user sessions and data to a street kerbside Wi-Fi network with fibre to the Kiosk with multi-gigabit speed connections. In a congested city like New York where cell towers are at very high roof level, this adds real wireless coverage and capacity improvements with all the social, economic and efficiency benefits it can bring.

LinkNYC users can roam securely and seamlessly between kiosks without having to log in again. When they’re in range of a kiosk, their devices are connected due to a profile they’ve previously downloaded or is already provisioned on their sim card. It’s a less frustrating, more productive user experience and the way that we should be using Wi-Fi.

Beyond New York City, this cellular-like user experience is the reason why Hotspot 2.0 services are in high demand. In 2019 they’ve been showcased to delegates at events including the WBA's Wireless Global Congress, Atlanta (and upcoming) in Frankfurt and significantly at the world’s largely cell-fest, Mobile World Congress, Barcelona - in the MWC Fira Exhibition Centre (with 100k+ visitors) and at other key points in a joined-up traveller journey (El Prat international airport, main train stations, key outdoor areas and selected hotels) - with a profile installed, the user can seamlessly connect to Wi-Fi in all these locations.

Hotspot 2.0 is also used by hotels, train operators, coffee chains and in other city centres, to give users a better, seamless Wi-Fi experience. I am aware of an upcoming Central London deployment that will include Hotspot 2.0 as part of a new network providing coverage at well-known tourist locations. Visitors with the Hotspot 2.0 profile already on their devices will be automatically connected as soon as they’re within range of an enabled hotspot. There will be no need for them to log in again or sign-up. It’s a great user experience that surprises and delights, improves user satisfaction, and can also be used as a channel for the brand or local authority to improve communication with users.  Moreover, with security in mind, Hotspot 2.0 employs an encrypted radio link from handset to Wi-Fi Access Point.

GlobalReach put the first major municipal Hotspot 2.0 service in place making user roaming possible in San Francisco and San Jose back in 2014, and we are involved in similar projects to overlay Hotspot 2.0 onto other international Wi-Fi services today. Imagine if every major international city did that.

To these early adopters Hotspot 2.0 Wi-Fi is a complementary service to cellular services for a long list of reasons including cost, capacity, speed, management ease, better indoor performance and more flexible traffic management. However, it’s with the recent announcement of Hotspot 2.0 Release 3 capabilities, which GlobalReach as a contributor to the standard, has made available now), that things have started to get very interesting.

The new capabilities introduce advanced policy management which means that Wi-Fi service providers and enterprises can consider more sophisticated commercial opportunities to monetise their Hotspot 2.0 Wi-Fi services. Rather than think about their networks as one-dimensional guest Wi-Fi services, adding advanced policy management, transforms them into carrier-grade Wi-Fi, which is attractive to cellular operators for coverage infill (in areas such as indoor locations where cellular performance is weak), roaming to expand a coverage estate (and the loyalty and retention benefits that delivers) and for 3G/4G traffic offload.

This is already happening. Capacity Media reported earlier this month that a major 5G and private Wi-Fi network will integrate to provide for indoor coverage with the benefit to 5G network operators that future services could be extended into buildings and integrated with secure private networks built to the new Wi-Fi 6 standard for which leading equipment vendors have already announced products and the Wi-Fi Alliance (www.wi-fi.org) announced its Wi-Fi 6 certification programme this month.

Meanwhile the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), with its eco-system of Wi-Fi and cellular operators and the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance, which represents mobile network operators has produced its findings on how 5G New Radio and Wi-Fi 6 might work together in a converged platform to optimise user experience and manage the cost of deploying a new network infrastructure.

Network convergence use cases like this elevate Wi-Fi services to a valuable asset which service providers and enterprises can use to negotiate access deals with cellular operators to recoup and offset the costs of building and managing these high-performance services - particularly for indoor environments which are unlikely to be the priority for 5G coverage for cellular Operators.

Hotspot 2.0 has also created a new financial opportunity for these cellular operators. Demand on networks is so high, that we are now involved in strategic discussions about how to use carrier-grade Wi-Fi as a way to manage RAN (Radio Access Network) CAPEX and OPEX expenditure.

These discussions run deeper than Wi-Fi offload. In our experience taking data off a cellular network doesn't necessarily free up the cellular network. In many places, user demand for data consumption is so much that the network simply fills up again with more traffic. We’re talking about using Hotspot 2.0 Wi-Fi as an opportunity to better manage this traffic, setting policies about the type of traffic that will use which network, according to its priority, user demographics, value to the user etc.

Because of the relatively lower cost of Wi-Fi, this is a significant step towards controlling operators’ infrastructure costs. Moreover, if traffic is managed effectively, user satisfaction can be improved, so helping with churn management for cellular data subscriptions.  

Wi-Fi offload used to be the industry’s elephant in the room but as Wi-Fi and 5G convergence become commonplace, operators’ Hotspot 2.0 deployments are to be applauded. They’re making capital out of new technology which is beneficial for operators, vendors and end-users. My long-held view is that operators need to focus more on their customers' actual experience and less on the technology that they deploy - they should not define themselves by the technology they deploy but rather the service they offer customers - ie mobile data access, over whichever network technology best meets the customer need and the optimal cost.

I was at the Wireless Broadband Alliance’s Wireless Global Congress in Frankfurt last month, where I had some lively Wi-Fi 6 / 5G convergence discussions where the opportunity of Hotspot 2.0 will be front and centre.

NEW ORLEANS, August 20, 2019 - GlobalReach Technology, a leading provider of high-performance Wi-Fi solutions, services and analytics, has partnered with the Mercantile Hotel New Orleans to implement a next-generation guest Wi-Fi service through the implementation of Hotspot 2.0. An all-suites boutique property located in the historic Warehouse/Arts District of New Orleans, the Mercantile Hotel New Orleans’ adoption of Hotspot 2.0 gives guests an automatic connection to hotel Wi-Fi, and bypasses the usual barriers to Wi-Fi access with a secure authentication process that mirrors the ease of use of today’s cell phones.

Guests can connect multiple personal devices by provisioning each device with a Hotspot 2.0 credential once with a process that takes just seconds. The Mercantile’s guests can simply scan a QR code at reception or on the in-room Angie virtual assistant device present in all 90 luxury suites. This then directs them to the GlobalReach online signup server in order to instantly download a secure profile. Once the profile is downloaded, a guest’s phone, laptop or tablet will be automatically connecting to the hotel’s Wi-Fi service, eliminating the need to remember passwords or log in again.

“Since implementing GlobalReach Technology’s Hotspot 2.0 alongside our new Angie Hospitality in-room guest assistants, we have seen a 70 to 80 per cent reduction in Wi-Fi support calls which has freed our staff to have other conversations with guests that lead to enhanced value and satisfaction,” says Joshua Herron, Director, Technology & Experience at Innisfree Hotels which oversees the Mercantile Hotel New Orleans. “These two solutions have allowed us to substantially improve guest loyalty and satisfaction and have experienced nearly 100 per cent positive feedback on the property. Hotspot 2.0 is simply a ‘no-brainer’ for hotels, and I can imagine putting this in every one of our properties.”

Seamlessly integrated with the Mercantile’s existing Ruckus Zone Director, Ruckus Wi-Fi Access Points and Deep Blue network in a matter of hours, Hotspot 2.0 by GlobalReach Technology was also simultaneously added to the property’s 24-hour Angie Hospitality guest room assistant. This provides each guest with private and secure access to their own in-room network.

Chris Bruce, Managing Director of GlobalReach Technology looks at solutions to solve rail Wi-Fi problems which can lead to improving the experience for both passengers and train operators.

By Chris Bruce, managing director, GlobalReach Technology

Have you ever used Wi-Fi on a commuter train service?  

If you do so daily, have you wondered why you have to click the T&Cs each time you connect?  Have you ever been bumped off the Wi-Fi service on your train and had to connect to a different service on the platform as the train stops at a station?  And, has your smartphone ever been confused as to which signal (SSID) to connect to when two trains from different TOCs (Train Operating Companies) are at adjacent platforms?  

I am a daily business commuter to London, and I find all these things frustrating and as I work in the Wi-Fi sector I also know that the experience for me and millions of others is unnecessarily complex.  It is relatively easy to fix these issues, and through Hotspot 2.0 Wi-Fi roaming, create a revenue stream that will compensate the TOCs and fund a connected passenger journey.  

There is no technical reason why a passenger moving from one train service to another cannot register once and be connected seamlessly throughout their rail journey. Hotspot 2.0 solves all these problems and provides a more secure connection via encrypted radio link from handset to Wi-Fi access point.  Both the technology standards and supporting hardware are available now and businesses in other industries, like retail and hospitality, are already seeing the benefits of a better, and more secure, user experience.

The passenger experience - and that of the rail operator - can be improved by making the Wi-Fi service better. This was the essence of the recent submission that GlobalReach made to the Williams Rail Review, the UK Government’s rail six months industry review.

Make Rail Wi-Fi Better

The UK rail network is a patchwork of different stakeholders, made up of Network Rail and the different TOCs, station retailers, contractors, maintenance companies and many others.  By adopting the Hotspot 2.0 standard, simple roaming agreements can be put in place that let passengers register for Wi-Fi just once and move from one Wi-Fi network to another. They can connect using a profile stored in their smartphone’s SIM card or via the train operator’s loyalty scheme app.

Passengers connect to Hotspot 2.0 services by downloading a one-time provisioning file to their device. This then automatically configures Wi-Fi settings and encryption.  Once the device is provisioned with a Hotspot 2.0 credential, this one-time sign-up then gives passengers an automatic connection whatever train, route or rail operator they are using.

When commuters like me return to the station or train, their devices are ‘remembered’ and they automatically connect day after day, without the need to log in again. It’s a better experience made possible by a mature Hotspot 2.0 technology standard, which has been available since 2014.

A passenger engagement channel

While better Wi-Fi may not help trains to arrive on time, it will improve passenger communication about journey information, delays and cancellations. General messages can be sent to the devices of all Wi-Fi users on a platform or train to supplement PA announcements, and allow them to plan alternatives, reducing stress in times of service disruption. It may also occupy passengers for entertainment or work.

With this ability to target communications at a granular level, TOCs can increase the transparency and relevancy of their passenger service announcements, and so improve satisfaction.

Better Wi-Fi security

Imagine that you’re on the move, working or communicating away from your home network. You’re potentially vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks.

Hotspot 2.0 delivers higher levels of user security and legal compliance with GDPR and security responsibilities. This happens by authenticating the subscriber’s connection with credentials provided by their mobile operator on the user’s SIM or via online signup (OSU) validation.  Hence TOCs can meet all CSP (Communications Service Provider) and ISP (Internet Service Provider) regulations for providing the service.

Some Wi-Fi operators authenticate users for seamless login with the MAC (Media Access Control) addresses of a previously connected device.  However, communications between the device and the access point are unencrypted with this method. Moreover, many of the handset operating systems updates ‘randomise’ MAC authorisation on many devices for other security reasons, so returning users may have to log in each time.

Hotspot 2.0 overcomes this issue by using encryption between the Wi-Fi access point and the user device and is, therefore, more secure.

The upside for train operators

Better Wi-Fi is not just better for travellers. With a Hotspot 2.0 service in place, rail Wi-Fi operators may also have a new way to secure income from the Wi-Fi roaming and mobile offload agreements, to help fund the network improvements.

Hotspot 2.0 makes using Wi-Fi more like a mobile network. This seamless user experience, combined with the better ‘in-carriage’ coverage that Wi-Fi offers, makes these services more attractive to mobile carriers, aggregators and other telco service providers. They’re in high demand as a way to quickly grow their coverage footprints and enable offload.

By implementing roaming agreements, passengers can benefit from secure and automatic Wi-Fi access whatever their route or with whichever TOC.  Rail operators can still retain their brand identities by keeping their existing SSID, portal and user experience by using a Hotspot 2.0 roaming feature called RCOI. This is a Roaming Consortium ID which allows all parties to roam across different Wi-Fi networks.

This is good news for rail companies. Third-party partners can roam or offload data onto the rail Wi-Fi network for a fee, and these fees could contribute to funding and upgrading to a world-class connected passenger journey.

The future of rail connectivity

Upgrading Wi-Fi authentication and policy management across railway infrastructure (trains, stations, platform and depots) can enhance the passenger experience and improve satisfaction levels.  Hotspot 2.0 makes this possible. A collaborative approach between rail companies can make this happen.

Reimagine my daily commute with an automatic Wi-Fi connection. As I reach the station and move from platform to train, my phone is already connected no matter whether I switch to a different rail company.  I don’t have to login again and again, and I have a way to stay in touch, work, or keep my family entertained.

This relatively small and simple upgrade to existing rail Wi-Fi infrastructure can open the door to huge improvements to the passenger experience and to passenger satisfaction.  

About GlobalReach Technology

GlobalReach has designed and built some of the world’s most sophisticated Wi-Fi services such as the award-winning London Underground Wi-Fi service (as a white-label supplier to Virgin Media).

Its carrier-grade solutions are used by ScotRail (including data offload), Coast to Coast Rail (including a single sign-on solution, train to the platform), GlobalReach has delivered Wi-Fi services for Virgin West Coast and also provides passenger Wi-Fi on buses and taxi services, as well as inflight Wi-Fi and maritime services.

As the rail sector looks to improve its customer experience, we are ready to help support the UK rail industry deliver a world-class connected passenger journey to enhance the overall customer experience, whilst enabling commercial models to support the investment required.

Chris Bruce is managing director, GlobalReach Technology. He has more than 15 years experience in service provider Wi-Fi as CEO of BT Openzone and in his chair/co-chair positions at the Board of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA). www.wballiance.com

Many thanks to the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) Board of Directors & members for recognizing the significant leadership & contribution of our CTO Chris Spencer. 

He's been a leading light in the development of WiFi roaming, Hotspot 2.0 provisioning standards, Wi-Fi captive portal standards and the WBA’s city roaming trial. 

Well deserved Chris! 🙌🙌 We know we’re lucky to have you.

Join us at the Seamless Air Alliance booth next week as we demo in-flight Hotspot 2.0 WiFi. 

 Booth B49, Hall 6 17-23 June 2019 Parc des Expositions Paris-le Bourget.

The Mercantile, New Orleans, is offering guests a better Wi-Fi experience, with the introduction of secure, seamless guest connectivity. Using a Hotspot 2.0 service from GlobalReach Technology, the hotel's Wi-Fi login process has been streamlined to mirror today's cellular connectivity. Guests who add a secure Hotspot 2.0 profile to their devices will now automatically connect to Wi-Fi in the lobby and all 90 luxury guest suites.

The profile can be added to multiple guest devices, including Wi-Fi only tablets and laptops. Guests scan a QR code (see below) or visit the GlobalReach OSU webpage to download a one-time provisioning file to configure the Wi-Fi settings, and encryption protocols without the need for human intervention. Once registered, guests’ devices will automatically and securely connect to Wi-Fi whenever they're in range of the Mercantile's Hotspot 2.0 service.

"High quality Wi-Fi continues to be important for our guests. Adding seamless Wi-Fi connectivity using Hotspot 2.0, gives our guests the experience that they would get at home. It's easy for our team to manage, and there's no need for front of house staff to spend time handing out passwords. I'm confident it will boost guest satisfaction, and give us a new guest engagement channel." says Joshua Herron, Manager, Task Force at Innisfree Hotels.

In a separate innovation announced this week, Angie Hospitality announced that it has integrated GlobalReach Hotspot 2.0 with its 24-hour guest room assistant. The new, secure Wi-Fi connectivity, which is also available in all Mercantile guest rooms this week, ensures that each guest can effortlessly and securely connect their devices to a private, in-room, secure Wi-Fi network, in addition to Angie's array of voice control and touch screen capabilities.

By Dr Chris Spencer, CTO, GlobalReach Technology

Connecting to a Wi-Fi network means exposing your Wi-Fi hardware’s address (also called MAC address). 

Historically, this address was fixed and looks like a string of six hexadecimal numbers separated by dashes, for example, AA-BB-CC-12-34-56.  If you are privacy conscious, you can make Windows 10 automatically change this hardware address for your Wi-Fi adapter randomly every time you connect to the network.

If you enable the feature 'On' then when your device first connects to the Wi-Fi network it will generate a unique MAC for that network, remember it and use that for any returning connections.

You can also enable a second option 'Change Daily.' As this suggests your device will create a new MAC every day for the network connection.

‘Change Daily’, in theory, sounds straightforward and nice, in that it will be hard for any network operator to build a data pattern about your devices' activities. Imagine an airport or store being able to see how many times you have returned and how frequent your visits. 

It's customer data nirvana to know this about a customer, and you could find yourself on the receiving end of targeted - and unwanted - marketing.

However, the reality is until network operators offer more secure solutions in general, such as Hotspot 2.0, which disregards MAC randomization, they rely heavily on identifying your device by its MAC.  

For example, you may have to register for Wi-Fi access by providing your email address, or mobile phone number and receive a text code to enter back in, these are used to create an account typically stored against that devices' MAC, (that will, of course, be hashed and stored securely). 

But, when you return tomorrow, the first thing the network sees on an open Wi-Fi network is your device's MAC, which is used to match against your account. If the MAC appears to not be associated with an account you will be asked to register. 

By Dr Chris Spencer, CTO, GlobalReach Technology

I’ve spent this week attending and speaking at the HTNG Middle East Conference in Dubai, where I’ve been asked how content delivery networks work - hence the ‘explainer’ post, which I hope is useful to all.

Content delivery networks (CDNs) are an important part of Internet infrastructure that are frequently used without a full understanding of what’s happening behind the scenes. 

As with most pieces of technology, CDNs are not magic and actually work in a pretty simple and straightforward manner.

When a web browser makes a request for a resource (a resource could be a simple image, css, JavaScript file), the first step is to make a DNS request. Making a DNS request is like looking up a phone number in a phone book - the browser gives the domain name and expects to receive an IP address back. 

With the IP address, the browser can then contact the web server directly for subsequent requests (there are actually multiple layers of DNS caching, but that’s beyond the scope of this text). For a simple captive portal or small commercial web site, a domain name may have a single IP address; for large web applications, a single domain name may have multiple IP addresses for handling load, a single server can only handle so many requests for resources at a time, so often multiple servers are used.

Physics determines how fast one computer can contact another over physical connections, and so attempting to access a server in Singapore from a computer in the United States will take longer than trying to access a U.S. server from within the U.S. 

To improve user experience and lower transmission costs, large companies set up servers with copies of data in strategic geographic locations around the world. This is called a CDN, and these servers are referred to as edge servers, as they are closest on the company’s network to the end-user ‘the edge’ of the network.

DNS Resolution

When the browser makes a DNS request for a domain name that is handled by a CDN, there is a slightly different process than with small, one-IP webserver. 

The server handling DNS requests for the domain name looks at the incoming request to determine the best set of servers to handle it. At its simplest, the DNS server does a geographic lookup based on the DNS requesters IP address and then returns an IP address for an edge server that is physically closest to that area. 

So, if I’m making a request and the DNS resolver I’m using is in London, I’ll be given an IP address for a server closest to London. If I make the same request through a DNS resolver in Kuala Lumpur, I’ll be given an IP address for a server in KL or Singapore, or closer if an edge server is available. You may not end up with a DNS resolver in the same geographic location from where you’re making the request, but you should be given the best possible option at that exact time.

That’s the first step of the process: getting the request to the closest server possible, but other factors can also affect the DNS resolve for the IP that client request should use.

Keep in mind that CDN platform providers may optimise their CDNs in other ways as well, for instance, redirecting to a server that is cheaper to run or one that is sitting idle while another is almost at capacity. 

CDN companies run their services for many customers so a specific server at that time maybe handling large requests for another customer. In any of those cases, the DNS should intelligently return the best possible IP address to handle that specific request at that time. 

This is why IPs are hard to compile and source when using a CDN as CDN providers are constantly adding new servers, for the reasons I’ve stated above. Thus, adding new IPs to their platforms as they create new edge servers and clusters to maintain the best experience at all times. New extra servers equal new locations, hence the need when using a CDN for a captive portal for whitelisting the domain names by DNS, so that the DNS is resolved and that IP is then allowed rather than adding a static IP list that can be outdated almost instantly when using a third party commercial CDN).  

Accessing Content

Edge servers are proxy caches that work in a manner similar to the browser caches. When a request comes into an edge server, it first checks the cache to see if the content is present. The cache key is the entire URL including query string (just like in a browser). If the content is in cache and the cache entry hasn’t expired, then the content is served directly from the edge server.

If, on the other hand, the content is not in the cache or the cache entry has expired, then the edge server makes a request to the origin server to retrieve the information. The origin server is the source of truth for content and is capable of serving all of the content that is available on the CDN. When the edge server receives the response from the origin server, it stores the content in cache based on the HTTP headers of the response.

By Dr Chris Spencer, CTO, GlobalReach Technology

In the past, users of Wi-Fi networks had to search for and choose a network to connect to. Then, each and every time, they had to request a connection to the access point (AP) and, in many cases, re-enter their authentication credentials.

Now, as Chris Spencer, GlobalReach CTO explains, Hotspot 2.0 (aka Next Generation Hotspot) has streamlined and simplified the entire process to enable seamless connection between hotspot networks and mobile devices, all while delivering the highest WPA2 security.

Chris is a recognised authority on Hotspot 2.0 and has made it possible for GlobalReach to integrate the technology into its Wi-Fi solutions, enabling service providers and enterprises to benefit from it ahead of other market players.

Hotspot 2.0 delivers a much more seamless, "cellular-like" user experience when connecting to Wi-Fi networks.  And, last week at Mobile World Congress 2019, GlobalReach also announced that it has integrated Hotspot 2.0 with its roaming solution, allowing service providers and enterprises to use the technology to quickly expand wireless footprints, enable offload, and to monetise the more stable and complete (and therefore more attractive) networks.

However, as Dr Spencer points out, currently the industry is still in the Hotspot Release 1 phase. As far as carriers are concerned, things are straightforward because their networks and processes can provide easy on-boarding.  However, enterprise customers are currently frustrated. The good news is that as Hotspot 2.0 release 2 concentrates on client profiles, policy and remediation, this is set to be a boon to the enterprise sector.

This Q&A was originally recorded by Telecom TV at the WBA’s Wireless Global Congress in London, November 2019.

Can you tell us about your technology roadmap to improve the Wi-Fi experience overall?

The big one that everyone is talking about at the moment is Hotspot 2.0. The problem is enterprise onboarding. Carriers are fine onboarding their subscribers using over the air SIM messages and other technologies.

We’re working heavily with the big three mobile operating companies about how we improve that whole onboarding experience that’s needed within the industry. We’re innovating with them and launched a number of new onboarding solutions to make this happen.

The ultimate holy grail is when we get the Release 2 phase.  The client has been a little overlooked in phase 1.  But what carrier users are already seeing is the immediate benefits of seamless and automatic connection to the network, the security, the seamless environment.

Recently we’ve also enabled profile download via a simple QR code scan or NFC tag tap.  There are also increasing numbers of Qi wireless chargers in enterprises like coffee shops and hotels. These are used to charge our phones. This is another opportunity to onboard the Hotspot 2.0 profile via a prompt to download it to subscribers’ phones.

Let’s stay with the roadmap. How close are you to the endpoint?

I believe in short, mid and long term roadmaps.  Even when Hotspot 2.0 Release 2 comes into the ecosystem, there is still a transition that needs to happen.

Apple, for example, recently said that 50-something percent of their base has already moved to iOS 12 in a short space of time. They can control that because they own the end-to-end ecosystem.

Some of the other device operators don’t have this level of control, so they need to wait for the subscriber or the carrier to upgrade instead.  And, there’s always the question as to whether the operator actually wants you to upgrade, or whether they want to sell you their latest new phone. So, there’s a number of moving parts and we’re working with these type of constraints and with the best industry insights that we have.  

We’re also helping enterprises to enable onboarding and make these decisions based on the specifics of their industry. As I talk to more specific industries, we’re understanding more about their environments.

Let me give you an example of a cruise ship.  They take around six years to build and in the last two years they’re in complete lockdown, where the spec, infrastructure and equipment have all been defined and can’t be moved unless there is a critical exception.  

Airlines are another one.  It’s very expensive to bring an aircraft out of service to refit it. Again, with satellites. The length of time that it takes to put a satellite into space means that the technology is out-of-date before it is launched. So, as we get closer to these enterprises, our roadmap is built into industry-specific chunks where I rarely think about Wi-Fi but about the user experience in that particular space.  

We’re at a stage now where demonstrating the benefits of seamless connectivity is as easy as me getting my phone out of pocket and showing these enterprises that the Wi-Fi is connected. It’s already there.  The technical conversations we are having is about giving their users access to the Hotspot 2.0 profile.

What is Hotspot 2.0 and what does it mean to the user?

It’s broken into two parts. Release 1 and Release 2.  

Release 1 is about the network pre-selection. When we jump off a plane in Spain, for example, our phone takes some time to select a carrier for us. Hotspot 2.0 brings that within Release 1. The user doesn’t have to select a network, it’s all done at that pre-association stage.

We’ve also tackled security and my device knows that it can connect to that network. We can’t have a rogue access point where people have been concerned in the past.  This has been ruled out in Hotspot 2.0. Every access point is validated as I connect to it.  

Release 2 is all around the client device. It’s concerned with getting the profile onto that device, the policy, making sure I get what I pay for, and remediation. Remediation involved actually telling somebody that they’ve used 80% of their data allowance, or that they need to accept new T&Cs in a new country, for example.

Release 1 has been tried, tested and rolled out in lots of sectors. Release 2 is just starting and it’s very exciting.

What about frictionless UX and how this is being deployed at the enterprise level. What use cases can you give me?

Well, an enterprise can be a wide definition. It can be a business, but it can also be city, a hotel chain or a cruise liner.   It’s the business delivering the service and where the connection really happens.

So within a city, a use case could be a traffic attendant connected to the Wi-Fi service to do their job, or smart cars connecting as they pass through. It’s the convergence of lots of different IoT devices and things as practical as traffic control signals etc.  Some cities and even car manufacturers are already quite far advanced in their connected vision.

GlobalReach is already deeply involved is helping enterprises with this vision, and for early adopters, we’re already delivering many of the first wireless cities and city roaming projects where Hotspot 2.0 is being rolled out.  

If we bring it back to use cases within the enterprise, it could be as simple as secure staff access on a secure network, compared to a WPA2 shared key that all staff know, which compromises security and means new passwords have to be rolled out.  In that case, Hotspot 2.0 is moving that enterprise to a client-trust relationship on that particular network.

By Mark Carter, Chief Product Officer at GlobalReach Technology

Wi-Fi carrier roaming produces additional revenues for service providers its primary benefit is in the avoidance and reduction of subscriber churn.

Service providers can leverage Wi-Fi carrier roaming to extend service platforms by working with other operators to add value in other territories and and other vertical markets.

This can boost brand loyalty and, as roaming barriers for LTE come down, can also help in the development of a more heterogeneous network view.

Wi-Fi has a strong card to play in that game by providing service providers with lower cost transport services.

In this interview, originally filmed by TelecomTV at the WBA’s Wireless Global Congress London, 2018, Mark Carter, GlobalReach Technology’s chief product officer, urges the industry to rethink roaming and the complementary nature of 5G and Wi-Fi.

How are service providers using GlobalReach for both consumers and enterprises?

Our service platform falls into two camps.

Authentication, with virtual RADIUS and oAuth to allow service providers to tailor their authentication method that they want their users to use.  This isn’t just email.  It could be Google or Facebook identities for example.

More and more people are additionally now asking for loyalty platforms tie-ins, which actually drives brand loyalty and brand engagement.

The second piece is the actual interface that the user sees during their journey, which is traditionally the captive portal.  GlobalReach gives them a platform to allow them to design, build and develop any number of wireless services, depending on the enterprises they’ve working with. It’s essentially a management platform for the wireless user experience, which allows them to brand and customise all their services.

The brand name is Odyssys, which is the platform as a whole. And, within the platform there are standalone feature units, which do what they say on the tin. Features like policy management and provisioning for example.

How is it helping service providers to improve the services they’re talking about?

Our specific capabilities are about the improvements to the user journey, Hotspot 2.0, user profiles, enabling pre-deployment of Wi-Fi authentication before consumers get to a venue. At Wireless Global Congress London 2018, for example, you saw QR codes for onboarding of Hotspot 2.0 for the first time.

So cutting down the technical requirement and breaking down the barrier to entry, which is something that Wi-Fi has struggled with in comparison with mobile.

Our goal is to make the experience seamless but not to get away from a better user experience.

What are the benefits of Wi-Fi carrier roaming?

Fundamentally is generates some carrier revenue, but really for me the primary use of service providers to consider this is to avoid churn.

By working with other service providers they can add capability to their service platform, add territories and brand capability. Which adds value to their subscribers.

What you’re seeing as the roaming barriers for LTE come down, you’re starting to see a more heterogeneous mix. Wi-Fi has a major role to play in that mix for bringing down the transport costs for voice traffic for example, when people are travelling out of territory, or are within areas where voice coverage might be bad.

What about the consumers? They’re the ones who are playing in the end. Are they particularly aware?

Probably not, to be honest.

More and more we are starting to see a service requirement to move away from apps. It needs to be part of the bearer network and to work seamlessly. Consumers are now starting to appreciate Wi-Fi not for what it is, but what it does.

It’s about the loading of content, and about the experience that they want.  So while they don’t necessarily appreciate the technology, why should they?

I don’t think that they necessarily care.

Where do you see Wi-Fi in a 5G world, and are you evolving your products and services to get ready for the demise?

Well, I don’t agree with the demise for a start.  I think that they do different things.  You’ve heard at WGCLON that the carriers are very much setting out differential plays for 5G and Wi-Fi.

Wi-Fi ultimately has a role to deliver the ‘last 50 feet.’ You have that high power, so you might use 5G to a rural homestead, but the distribution on the property of more likely to be Wi-Fi.

So I think that there is a match.

What is encouraging is that Wi-Fi and AX are keeping pace, in terms of the bandwidth capability.

There’s always a danger that you might have lightning fast Wi-Fi and no backhaul, which is a mismatch and affects the whole experience. So if the two technologies don’t work together for different use cases. Then there’s a problem.

Our capabilities take account of the bearer to shape the traffic and to give a faster experience, so I’m tending to concentrate on technologies like HTTP2 which is smoothing out that user capability in low bandwidth situations.

Where it comes to high bandwidth content, it’s really about managing the stream for that user.  

By Dr Chris Spencer, CTA, GlobalReach Technology

Ever noticed that your home Wi-Fi signal becomes patchy over the festive break?  We have. 

Unfortunately, your fantastic Xmas LED light show could be to blame. And, while your thought that bigger was better, the problem is all down to some basic principles of physics.

But, before you break your children’s hearts and tear down the tree, so that you can stream ‘Bad Santa’ without interruption, the answer might be a room re-arrangement to reduce the distance between your Wi-Fi router (or access points), your holiday lights and any sparkling strands.

The Science Behind the Sparkle

Wi-Fi uses radio waves to communicate. Radio waves fall into the radiant energy family, we call this the electromagnetic spectrum. Microwaves, infrared beams, visible light, ultraviolet rays, and gamma rays are all part of this radiant energy family. Unfortunately for us, these waves interfere with each other.

Not isolated to Christmas lights, your microwave is actually the biggest nuisance to a decent home Wi-Fi signal. If your router sits next to a microwave, you’ll probably notice a few blips in connectivity when you warm up your turkey sandwich...

High-powered microwaves often operate at a frequency around 2.4GHz  - which is the same as the frequency used by most home Wi-Fi devices. Switch on the microwave, and your laptop can no longer distinguish between the Wi-Fi signals and energy being produced by heating your turkey stuffing. Mobile phones, Bluetooth gadgets, some baby monitors, and cordless phones can create similar problems and interfere with your overall connectivity. Something to think of before you try and to stream the Queen’s Christmas speech.

Back to the reasons why our pretty twinkly holiday lights cause havoc with our Wi-Fi. Today’s throwaway culture has made the likelihood of these interruptions more frequent. Most of our lights are now light-emitting LED bulbs. and the quality of their wires is typically unshielded. This means that the electromagnetic radiation created by electricity pulsing through the cable produces a very weak electromagnetic field.

Moreover, the more lights in the string may mean a stronger electromagnetic field, thanks to a physical concept called linear superposition. In essence, you’ve weaponized your Christmas tree and turned it into a giant electromagnetic pulse (EMP) emitter, and it’s the reason why your Wi-Fi is struggling.

Light waves, like all forms of electromagnetic radiation, moves in waves, best visualized as waves of water on a shoreline.

If two or more of those waves arrive at the same point and at the same time, their strength can combine and we see a much bigger wave. Turn that back to our subject here, those corresponding light waves create a stronger magnetic field.

Visible light from your holiday lights isn’t messing with your Wi-Fi because the two don’t actually work on the same frequency. The primary culprit is the electromagnetic radiation from the wires or LED electronics powering or driving those, which can create interference in the range of radio and Wi-Fi frequencies. Remember the microwave oven effect? Well, literally that...

What’s the Answer to a Connected Christmas?

It’s hard to predict the exact points where electromagnetic waves from those twinkling lights may join or merge, but electromagnetic field strength diminishes with distance. An obvious solution, therefore, is to move your Wi-Fi router or laptop desk away from your freshly decorated Christmas tree. Alternatively, dig out the strange short HDMI extender that came in the box with your new Firestick to move your streaming adapter. It can be used to move your streaming device or change its orientation. Sometimes just a few centimeters is enough to move it out of range of the electromagnetic waves affecting your Wi-Fi connection...

Experiment by moving your router to different areas around your house and then check your connection speed from a speedtest site.

The Future

Engineers are designing materials that will protect Wi-Fi and other communication devices from electromagnetic issues. These shields will only permit intended Wi-Fi signals to interact with a device while blocking all other interference. Many government agencies, research facilities, and even NASA are already researching and creating shielding materials behind the scenes, because of the impact that electromagnetic waves have on major military applications.

Secure, Seamless Wi-Fi Used by Delegates of HTNG European Conference

THURSDAY 8 NOVEMBER, WIRELESS GLOBAL CONGRESS, LONDON: GlobalReach Technology, a Wi-Fi authentication and solutions provider, and Hospitality Technology Next Generation (HTNG) have released new figures showing the success of the HTNG European Conference Hotspot 2.0 service. The next generation Wi-Fi network and one-time sign up app were used on hundreds of devices, by representatives of major hospitality brands and industry suppliers in conference attendance at the Penha Longa Resort, a Ritz Carlton, Marriott property near Lisbon last month.

The quality and ease of use of hotel Wi-Fi is recognized as a major source of customer dissatisfaction. A significant stream within the HTNG European Conference was dedicated to upgrading the guest experience through improvements to the quality, control and business value of hospitality Wi-Fi services. Recognizing Wi-Fi's importance in our industry, HTNG had recently initiated a new working group to improve Wi-Fi quality and guest experience.

To support the drive, and to demonstrate the solutions which already exist for improving guest Wi-Fi services, GlobalReach installed an event-wide Hotspot 2.0 network in collaboration with GuestTek and the Marriot IT team, comprising of 454 Wi-Fi hotspots covering the entire hotel and conference center, including every room, bar, conference and meeting room.

All 203 HTNG European Conference delegates were sent a Hotspot 2.0 profile in pre-event emails, and received a hard copy card upon check-in at the event. The Hotspot 2.0 profile was loaded to their devices by scanning the QR code supplied or through the GlobalReach Odyssys online signup server (OSU) webportal. Once loaded, delegates had a secure, 'mobile-like' connection across every corner of the conference, without needing to login again and again.

Presenting at the conference, Mike Blake, CEO of HTNG said: "Thank you to our partners that made the Hotspot 2.0 seamless Wi-Fi access work for this event. Downloaded the app and it just worked. It didn't disconnect. Wi-Fi the way it should be."

HTNG Hotspot 2.0 Service Results

69% via the QR code

By Dr Chris Spencer, CTO, GlobalReach Technology

It's been 16 years since HTTP 1.1 (RFC2616) became a standard. Yes you read that right -  16 years - and I expect that a few of us are now feel very old as we read that.

But, a new faster securer standard has now been approved. It’s known as HTTP/2.

Most modern browsers already have support for HTTP/2. From a user’s perspective it’s seamless, but the biggest improvements are the  faster page load times, which means a faster and greater user experience.

GlobalReach Technology has already deployed the backend infrastructure to deliver all our captive portal pages over HTTP/2 to supported clients. (another GlobalReach first).

The benefit is that captive portal delivery over HTTP/2 greatly improves performance and loading times.

The Problem with HTTP/1.1

HTTP/1.1 has served the internet well for more than 16 years, but its age is starting to show, and it's lost its shine. In the face of today’s user demand for ever-increasing speed and content, it isn’t built to handle the future volumes.

Loading a web page now takes more resource than ever, and because HTTP really only allows one outstanding request per TCP connection. loading all of those assets (css, images, jQuery, JavaScript) efficiently is difficult.

In the past, browsers have used multiple TCP connections to issue parallel requests. However, there are limits to this; if too many connections are used, it’s both counter-productive (TCP congestion), and it’s fundamentally unfair because browsers are taking more than their share of the network resources.

At the same time, the large volume requests means that there’s a lot of duplicated data in transit over the network. Backhaul whether that fibre, cable or in the air, is at a premium.

Both of these factors means that HTTP/1.1 requests have a lot of overhead associated with them. If too many requests are made, performance suffers both on the network and at the server.

This has forced the industry into a corner where it’s considered best practice to do things like data: inlining, domain sharding, concatenation and putting content into multiple content delivery networks. These tricks are indications of underlying problems in the protocol itself, and cause a number of headaches when they’re used.

The Nuts & Bolts

HTTP/2 (originally named HTTP/2.0) is the second major version of the HTTP network protocol used by the World Wide Web. It is based on SPDY, an HTTP-compatible protocol developed by Google and supported in Chrome, Opera, Firefox, Internet Explorer 11, Safari, and Amazon Silk browsers.

HTTP/2 is was developed by the Hypertext Transfer Protocol working group of the Internet Engineering Task Force. HTTP/2 is the first new version of HTTP since HTTP 1.1, which was standardized in RFC 2616 in 1999. The working group presented HTTP/2 to IESG for consideration as a proposed standard in December 2014, and IESG approved it to publish as proposed standard on Feb 17, 2015.

The standardization effort came as an answer to SPDY. The working group charter mentions several goals and issues of concern:

Negotiation mechanism that allows clients and servers to elect to use HTTP 1.1, 2.0, or potentially other non-HTTP protocols.

Maintain high-level compatibility with HTTP 1.1 (for example with methods, status codes, and URIs, and most header fields).

Support common existing use cases of HTTP, such as desktop web browsers, mobile web browsers, web APIs, web servers at various scales, proxy servers, reverse proxy servers, firewalls, and content delivery networks.

Decrease latency to improve page load speed in web browsers by considering:

1. Data compression of HTTP headers 2. Server push technologies 3. Fixing the head-of-line blocking problem in HTTP 1 4. Loading page elements in parallel over a single TCP connection

The Difference With HTTP 1.1

The proposed changes do not require any changes to how existing web applications work, but new applications can take advantage of new features for increased speed.

HTTP/2 leaves most of HTTP 1.1's high level syntax, such as methods, status codes, header fields, and URIs, the same. The element that is modified is how the data is framed and transported between the client and the server.

Websites that are efficient minimize the number of requests required to render an entire page by minifying (reducing the amount of code and packing smaller pieces of code into bundles, without reducing its ability to function), resources such as images and scripts. However, minification is not necessarily convenient nor efficient, and may still require separate HTTP connections to get the page and the minified resources.

HTTP/2 allows the server to "push" content, that is to respond with data for more queries than the client requested. This allows the server to supply data it knows a web browser will need to render a web page, without waiting for the browser to examine the first response, and without the overhead of an additional request cycle.

Additional performance improvements in the first draft of HTTP/2 (which was a copy of SPDY) come from multiplexing of requests and responses to avoid the head-of-line blocking problem in HTTP 1 (even when HTTP pipelining is used), header compression, and prioritisation of requests.

SPDY

SPDY was a research project spearheaded by Google that is also an applicable protocol, designed for the transportation of information and other content on the web.

SPDY primarily focuses on reducing latency. SPDY uses the same TCP pipe but different protocols to accomplish this reduction. The basic changes made to HTTP 1.1 to create SPDY include: "true request pipelining without FIFO restrictions, message framing mechanism to simplify client and server development, mandatory compression (including headers), priority scheduling, and even bi-directional communication."

The biggest difference between HTTP/1.1 and SPDY, is that each user action in SPDY is given a "stream ID", meaning there is a single TCP channel connecting the user to the server. SPDY splits requests into either control or data, which is a "simple to parse binary protocol with two types of frames." SPDY has shown evident improvement from HTTP, with a new page load speedup ranging from 11.81% to 47.7%.

HTTP/2 uses SPDY as a jumping-off point; though SPDY is an improvement on HTTP 1.1, it does have some limitations. SPDY communicates separately with each host, which means that multiplexing happens only at one host at a time, no matter how many connections are open. This means that SPDY can only download things from one host at a time. The improvement HTTP/2 makes on this is that it allows multiplexing to happen at different hosts at the same time. This makes downloading multiple web pages or content from the Internet significantly faster.

HTTP/2 also uses a fixed Huffman code-based header compression algorithm, instead of SPDY's dynamic stream-based compression. This helps to reduce the potential for attacks on the protocol.

On February 9, 2015, Google announced plans to remove support for SPDY in Chrome, in favour of support for HTTP/2, by early 2016. This, started with Chrome 40.

Encryption

HTTP/2 is defined for both HTTP URIs (for now in the clear) and for HTTPS URIs (over TLS, where TLS 1.2 or newer is required).

Some implementations, such as Firefox, have stated that they will only support HTTP/2 when it is used over an encrypted connection.

The Faster Web is Just Around the Corner. Fasten your Seat Belts…..

By Dr Chris Spencer, CTO, GlobalReach Technology

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is the secure version of HTTP, the protocol over which data is sent between your browser and the website that you are connected to. It plays a crucial part in successful Wi-Fi authentication. This article tells you what you need to know about HTTPS vs HTTP.

 The 'S' at the end of HTTPS stands for 'Secure'. It means all communications between your browser and the website are encrypted. HTTPS is often used to protect highly confidential online transactions like online banking and online shopping order forms, clients’ registration information or subscribers’ user credentials.

Web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome also display a padlock icon in the address bar to visually indicate that a HTTPS connection is in effect.

When a user requests a HTTPS connection to a webpage, the website will initially send its SSL certificate to the browser. This certificate contains the public key needed to begin the secure session. Based on this initial exchange, the browser and the website then initiate the 'SSL handshake'. The SSL handshake involves the generation of shared secrets to establish a uniquely secure connection between the client browser and the website.

When a trusted SSL digital certificate is used during a HTTPS connection, users will typically see a padlock icon in the browser address bar. When an extended validation certificate is installed on a web site, the address bar will turn green.

How does HTTPS Work?

HTTPS pages typically use one of two secure protocols to encrypt communications - either SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) or TLS (Transport Layer Security). Both the TLS and SSL protocols use what is known as an 'asymmetric' Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) system. An asymmetric system uses two 'keys' to encrypt communications, a 'public' key and a 'private' key. Anything encrypted with the public key can only be decrypted by the private key and vice-versa.

 As the names suggest, the 'private' key should be kept strictly protected and should only be accessible the owner of the private key. In the case of a website, the private key remains securely ensconced on the web server. Conversely, the public key is intended to be distributed to anybody and everybody that needs to be able to decrypt information that was encrypted with the private key.

What is a SSL certificate?

When you request a HTTPS connection to a webpage, the website will initially send its SSL certificate to your browser. This certificate contains the public key needed to begin the secure session. Based on this initial exchange, your browser and the website then initiate the 'SSL handshake'. The SSL handshake involves the generation of shared secrets to establish a uniquely secure connection between yourself and the website.

Problems with Captive Portals

A Wi-Fi captive portal works by intercepting, impersonating, and altering the connection between client and web server. So, in essence, a captive portal is what’s known as a ‘man-in-the-middle’ attack. It has good intentions, but it is a man-in-the-middle all the same.

Intercepting ANY HTTPS traffic and redirecting to an alternative destination will always prompt a user to be aware of this with any modern browser or operating system. This is a fundamental part of the security that HTTPS incorporates.

For example, if a guest attempted to get to their online banking site (either via wireless or wired) and their traffic was intercepted and redirected to a different site with no warning this would be seen as an industry wide security concern, users could be redirected to phishing sites as an example with no warning.

A captive portal used correctly has a good intention, but not everyone would use it for the same reason. Intercepting any HTTPS request and redirecting to a different destination should always warn the user so that the user can make a choice if to proceed or not.

 So, What are the Options for my WLAN Gateway?

There currently appears to be three different industry approaches to the issue:

Intercept any HTTPS (or HTTP) and return a captive portal: This will ALWAYS display a warning that the site is being intercepted and that the traffic is being redirected.There is little that can be done in this circumstance, as outlined in this document HTTPS is designed to stop this very thing from happening and a warning will be triggered.

Allow all HTTPS traffic by default for all un-authenticated devices: By allowing all traffic applications and HTTPS driven websites would function normally in an unauthenticated state with the hope that the device will eventually make a HTTP call that can be intercepted and trigger the captive portal. This raises a few concerns, namely in accounted traffic. A users’ traffic is not normally allocated to their account until they are authenticated. Any traffic that device generate over HTTPS will be unaccounted for. As more and more of the internet converts to HTTPS then there are less chances to intercept the user and return a captive portal.

Drop all HTTPS traffic: The users’ device would not gain access to resources delivered over HTTPS. Their device would eventually see “a page can not be found” type message in their browser as the request would simply end up timing out.

Where bandwidth and customer access is not a major concern then option 2 maybe the best one to look at. But, where bandwidth is extremely costly, for example on an aeroplane, often they resort to option 3. Ultimately it is a trade between usability and effective interception.

The Future

The Wi-Fi industry is aware of the necessity to have the ability to put a captive portal/interstitial/T&Cs in front of certain users’ access to networks and has working groups assigned to this need. GlobalReach Technology has a representative sat on joint industry bodies looking and collaborating for a usable solution.

 There has been a standard proposed, RFC7710. This defines an extension to the DHCP protocol such that the captive portal location can be provided during the IP address assignment within an option packet, eliminating all the guessing and probing that we need to do with today's captive portal detection. The current status of this standard is 'proposed', and now has a wider industry importance to this as more and more of the internet becomes SSL-enabled. It may improve things in the future, but for now HTTPS carries the above warnings.

 Google Chromium Browser is also looking into utilising a new browser tab for captive portals information although we can not discuss this currently as this is under NDA.

About GlobalReach Technology

GlobalReach Technology is the brand behind Odyssys, the most complete, scalable Wi-Fi authentication and provisioning platform. Its software and cloud-based platform powers some of the world’s most complex Wi-Fi services, delivering billions of authentications a year. These include San Francisco, San Jose, London, Sydney, Mexico and throughout Europe.