Cisco Cisco Prime Access Registrar 6.0 白書

 

 

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White Paper 

Service Provider Wi-Fi Networks: 
Scaling Signaling Transactions 

Summary 

Wi-Fi adoption is in the midst of a transition, from being viewed purely as an extension of the fixed broadband 

business toward becoming a core capability that is being integrated into end-to-end service provider networks, 

delivering data connectivity that can complement conventional cellular data access. The recently introduced Wi-Fi 

Alliance (WFA) Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Passpoint certification program (hereafter referred to as Passpoint) enables 

smartphone devices to make use of smart card credentials to authenticate themselves to service provider Wi-Fi 

networks, addressing one of the key barriers to adoption of Wi-Fi by service providers - ease of use. The use of 

Extensible Authentication Protocol for GSM Subscriber Identity Module (EAP-SIM) and EAP for UMTS 

Authentication and Key Agreement (EAP-AKA) is seen as an important step in improving the experience of 

smartphone users on Wi-Fi networks, bringing them on a par with cellular networks where network selection and 

authentication are fully automated and usually hidden from the user, even in roaming scenarios. 

However, the wide-scale adoption of Passpoint-certified mobile devices and operation of EAP-SIM and EAP-AKA 

brings new scalability challenges to service provider Wi-Fi networks and their mobile network operator (MNO) 

partner networks. As a consequence, the GSM Association (GSMA, the industry body representing the MNOs) and 

the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA, the industry body representing the service provider Wi-Fi operators) have 

cooperated on an investigation into the potential for scaling issues associated with the adoption of the Wi-Fi 
Alliance’s Passpoint-certified devices that make use of smart card credentials to authenticate themselves to service 

provider Wi-Fi networks. 

Cisco provides a comprehensive and proven set of techniques for addressing signaling scale within service 

provider Wi-Fi networks. Driven by a need to enhance the user experience when connecting to Wi-Fi networks, 

Cisco has already developed and deployed a set of capabilities that will significantly help ease the burden of 

signaling when using EAP based authentication in Wi-

Fi networks. Configuration options defined with Cisco’s 

authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) and EAP server capabilities can be used to address signaling 

scaling and enable back-end systems to be protected from any signaling storms. 

Using the breadth of techniques being defined by the industry and enabled on Cisco Service Provider Wi-Fi 

infrastructure, operators can be confident that their Passpoint deployments will be able to scale to accommodate 

the enhanced ease of use that will accompany EAP-SIM/AKA deployments. 

Introduction 

Many service providers have adopted access strategies that now include the deployment of a large number of Wi-

Fi access points, offering service to a sizable population of users equipped with a range of Wi-Fi-enabled devices. 

The recently introduced Passpoint certification program enables smartphone devices to make use of smart card, 

also known as universal integrated circuit card (UICC), credentials to authenticate themselves to service provider 

Wi-Fi networks, addressing one of the key barriers to adoption of Wi-Fi by service providers - ease of use. The 

Passpoint certification program ensures that Wi-Fi devices supporting the Hotspot 2.0 specifications can 

successfully interoperate.