Deployment of user-friendly, secure and sustainable federated public Wi-Fi systems

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Deployment of user-friendly, secure and sustainable federated public Wi-Fi systems
GCTC logo 344x80.png
Singaporefreewifi.jpg
Singapore free wIfI
Team Organizations M1 Limited
MyRepublic Limited
Singapore Telecommunications Ltd
StarHub Ltd
Y5ZONE Singapore Pte Ltd
ANTlabs Pte Ltd
RansNet Singapore Pte Ltd
Sigma.3 Pte Ltd
Team Leaders Khoong Hock Yun
Participating Municipalities Singapore
Status Ready for Public Announcement
Document None

Description

To deploy a sustainable federated public Wi-Fi solution across Singapore that is has easy to use secure authenticated access and jointly develop a set of best practices with cities, industry players, and the academia to promote coordinated public Wi-Fi deployment, to address signal interference issues, standardizing user experience and security.

Challenges

Sustainability, public expectations, privacy and security are the main challenges faced by most cities.

Solutions

The proposed project shall jointly develop a set of best practices so as to standardized user experience globally.

Major Requirements

  • To enhance Singapore’s federated public Wi-Fi solution with an easier to use secure authentication solution.
  • To work with industry associations (i.e. Wireless Broadband Alliance) to develop best practices for interoperating secure authentication federated Wi-Fi solutions across cities.
  • To share experiences of each city’s deployment
  • Study the technical design of some cities deployment strategy
  • Study the various financial models to sustain the deployment
  • Explore more use cases for public Wi-Fi (beyond internet surfing needs)

Performance Targets

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Measurement Methods
  • Deployment of easy to use secure public Wi-Fi deployments in Singapore
  • Develop best practices for interoperating secure Wi-Fi hotspots globally
  • Promote awareness of secure Wi-Fi (cybersecurity)
  • Increase in adoption of secure public Wi-Fi in Singapore
  • Interoperable secure Wi-Fi hotspots with other major cities

Standards, Replicability, Scalability, and Sustainability

  • Employs IEEE802.1x authentication standards
  • Establish interoperability with cities

Cybersecurity and Privacy

  • By employing IEEE802.1x authentication standards (i.e. EAP-SIM, EAP-PEAP), users’ data over the wireless channels will be encrypted and secure.
  • Users setting up for EAP-SIM/ EAP-PEAP are required to download a client app to setup their devices. The client apps are integrated directly to the service providers’ API servers. All apps go through source code review by independent security auditor before these are released.
  • IMDA, as the programme owner, conducts biennial mandatory security audits (through appointed independent security auditor) on top of service providers own annual security review to ensure the Wi-Fi infrastructure continues to be secure by design.

Impacts

  • Promoting secure public Wi-Fi deployment through best practices
  • Bridging the digital divide
  • Improving quality of lives

Demonstration/Deployment

Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA) launched the Wireless@SG programme in 2006 to catalyze the deployment of secure public Wi-Fi. The programme adopted a federated model where the IMDA appoints a number of service providers to operate the public Wi-Fi hotspots, all subscribing to common login, security standards with local roaming. This allows users to access all Wireless@SG hotspots across Singapore in a seamless and secure manner using a single account. Through this, service providers are able to market and deliver commercial off the shelf service that can be procure by enterprises hence making Wireless@SG sustainable. There is also work to develop best practices and interoperability requirements between Wireless@SG and other global cities.