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IPDR.org defines service specification for public WLAN roaming and inks partnership with the WiFi Alliance
December 8, 2003
PITTSTOWN, N.J. -- The Internet Protocol Detail Record Organization (IPDR.org), an open consortium for next-generation service measurement and exchange, today announced approval of a Wireless Local Area Network Accounting and Settlement (WLANAS) service specification and partnership with the Wi-Fi Alliance. The specification enables price differentiation and inter-operator settlement for universal single-bill access to public WLAN (PWLAN) hotspots.
"The release of a widely-supported PWLAN settlement specification is a major step in the evolution of Wi-Fi roaming," said Tim Allwine, director, Product Management and Development, VeriSign, and IPDR.org WLANAS Working Group co-chair. "It provides a standardized means of information exchange and settlement. This allows roaming partners globally to share revenues and rapidly grow footprints without capital expenditure."
The IPDR.org WLANAS solution standardizes settlement among hotspot operators and a variety of home service providers. The specification supports native environments for every type of provider in the Wi-Fi value chain including GSM, CDMA, WISP, ISP and wireline and helps resolve key technical limitations of cross-industry settlement interoperability.
IPDR.org simultaneously signed a partnership agreement with the Wi-Fi Alliance, which brings together the two open consortia enabling public WLAN. "IPDR.org considers the Wi-Fi Alliance and its members as the industry leaders in the Wi-Fi space and values their input and expertise," said Aron Heintz, president, IPDR.org.
"The public access industry is in its early formation stages," said Frank Hanzlik managing director of the Wi-Fi Alliance. "Challenges like roaming and settlement can only be solved by bringing together several industry organizations with a common goal. We see the PWLAN settlement specification as a big step forward in moving us towards a vision of global roaming."
IPDR.org members have been actively involved with the evolution of the specification and in some cases have already implemented the solution as part of their IPDR-based toolkit. This intensive work activity developed use-case scenarios for standard Wi-Fi roaming describing the roles (e.g., operators, service providers, hotspot providers, equipment vendor, mediation suppliers, clearinghouses) and software interfaces across the communication value chain.
The WLANAS service specification is the newest addition to the overall series of IPDR.org NDM-U service specifications, and the first to specifically address inter-operator settlement. Other supported services include; VoIP, Streaming Media, CableLabs DOCSIS, etc. Following field trials by members, the WLANAS service specification will be publicly released by mid 2004.
IPDR.org (Internet Protocol Detail Record Organization)
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