CTIA: Wi-Fi Alliance working on data offload standard

Everyone is popping out a carrier Wi-Fi solution these days. The Wi-Fi Alliance is no exception. The critical difference is that the Alliance’s solution will be standardized. The Alliance is developing a certification program for Wi-Fi access points and dual-mode mobile devices that will automatically authenticate and provision smartphones and other mobile gadgets on public Wi-Fi networks.

Like many of the platforms released by vendors in recent month, Wi-Fi Mobile Hotspot would allow handsets to discover and automatically connect to Wi-Fi networks using credentials already embedded within the device such as SIM cards, said Sarah Morris, marketing manager for the Alliance. The specification would also add encryption to the equation, using WPA2 security protocols, and allow operators and consumers to prioritize different networks, for instance selecting an operator's own hotspots ahead of an open but unknown access point, Morris said. Finally, once a connection is established, the operator can manage and provision traffic and services just as they would over their own wide area mobile networks.

“You could get the same services you normally would from operators like VoIP or streaming video,” Morris said, as the operator could pipe all traffic from its core to the access point. But if a user is just accessing over the top services, there’s little reason to bridge the two networks, Morris said. “If the user is really just accessing the Internet it’s possible just to break that traffic out locally,” she said.

Ruckus Wireless, BelAir Networks, Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO), Nokia Siemens Networks (NYSE:NOK, NYSE:SI) and several others have released carrier Wi-Fi platforms that provide all of those services in differing combinations. But rather than link a platform to a particular type of access point or specific gateway in the operator’s network, Mobile Hotspot is intended to work universally across all devices, access points and operators networks, rather than lock an operator down to a particular vendor for the handset client, access point or access gateway. The proprietary implementations may be emerging ahead of a standard but many of those companies likely will embrace a standard once it is available, Morris said.

“We’re at a tipping point,” Morris said. “Connectivity only becomes more valuable when you can connect to other people’s stuff.”

The Wi-Fi Alliance isn’t the only vendor developing a standard carrier Wi-Fi spec. The 3GPP has put forth a standard called the Access Network Delivery and Service Function (ANDSF), which has already been adopted by We-Fi (CP: WeFi turns global Wi-Fi database into a mobile data offload platform). ANDSF and Mobile Hotspot will work hand in hand, rather than against one another, Morris said. ANDSF will create a standardized conduit for carriers to transmit customer information to Wi-Fi access points, while Mobile Hotspot will create a common language for handsets and other devices to communicate that information to the hotspot.

Operators may have to rely on proprietary solutions for a little longer, though. The Alliance is still in the early stages of the specification process and doesn’t anticipate certifying the first devices until the first half of 2012.