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The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), the global industry body dedicated to improving Wi-Fi standards and services, announced a new framework for WBA integrating OpenRoaming and FIDO Device Onboard (FDO). This initiative is intended to enable a seamless and secure zero-touch onboarding process for Internet of Things (IoT) Wi-Fi devices.
Wi-Fi-based IoT devices have historically faced challenges due to the complexity of manual onboarding processes, making large-scale deployment inefficient. By leveraging the OpenRoaming global network of millions of hotspots, the onboarding process is intended to become seamless, accelerating the adoption of Wi-Fi-based IoT devices across sectors like smart cities, manufacturing, and logistics.
WBA OpenRoaming is a roaming federation service that creates the framework to connect billions of users and things to millions of Wi-Fi networks. FIDO Device Onboard (FDO) is an automatic onboarding protocol for edge nodes and IoT devices specified by the FIDO Alliance. The “OpenRoaming for IoT - FIDO Device Onboarding Framework” report details how these technologies work together to simplify and secure the onboarding process for IoT devices, transforming large scale IoT deployments.
The integration between OpenRoaming and FDO addresses critical challenges of large-scale IoT deployments by providing a secure, scalable, and automated onboarding solution. By automating the onboarding process, headless, and other pre-configured FDO IoT devices can be onboarded straight out of the box using OpenRoaming. They can then receive new OpenRoaming credentials, allowing them to permanently connect via OpenRoaming or receive credentials to connect to a private Wi-Fi network for a permanent connection.
Key benefits of the framework according to the WBA:
Zero-touch, secure onboarding: Automates device onboarding, enhancing operational efficiency and ensuring secure authentication.
OpenRoaming and FDO integration: Describes how pre-configured OpenRoaming and FDO credentials enable seamless device connectivity across networks.
Alternative network environments: Covers complex deployments and provisioning challenges.
Supply chain security: Ensures device security through ownership vouchers and cryptographic mechanisms.
ARC has just completed a market outlook on the Industrial and Outdoor Wireless LAN Infrastructure marketplace. Contact ARC’s Bill Krah at [email protected] for more information.