Aptilo Carrier-Class Wi-FiSolution Datasheet

Carrier-Class Wi-Fi. Your challenge, our specialityWith more than 90 service provider Wi-Fi customers in 60 coun-tries under our belt, we understand that building a carrier-class Wi-Fi service is a challenging task with a lot of considerations,

• How to integrate with my existing OSS/BSS?• How to efficiently roll-out new sites?• How to make Wi-Fi attractive to venue owners?• Which business models should I use?• Which Wi-Fi radio vendor should I select?

This list of daunting tasks goes on and on and becomes even more complex in a mobile data offloading scenario, where inte-gration with the mobile core is required.

Since 2001, we have carefully built the Aptilo Service Manage-ment Platform™ (SMP) into a strong weave. Each thread rep-resents one of the thousands of demanding requirements we have received from our service provider Wi-Fi customers.

We play nicely with all carrier-class Wi-Fi vendorsAruba, Cisco, Ericsson and Ruckus are just a few examples of our Wi-Fi partners, all world-leading Wi-Fi vendors. Our system has been adapted for and deployed with their products.

The Aptilo Service Management Platform™ (SMP)Aptilo offers a fast-track for launching Wi-Fi services with our optional pre-integrated functions for subscriber management, prepaid & charging, web portals, access control as well as statis-tics and reporting; all optimized to work together on a single scal-able system – the Aptilo Service Management Platform™ (SMP). What this means for you as a service provider is faster time-to-market and happy subscribers with the best user experience avail-able today.

The Aptilo Service Management Platform can easily adapt to your special needs, through the Aptilo ServiceGlue™ concept (see below). Aptilo SMP works hand in hand with the Aptilo Service Portal™ (SPA) which provides monitoring, reporting and tailored statistics for different user groups through dedicated venue por-tals.

The user experience is controlled by the Aptilo Access Control-ler™ (AC) or third-party access gateways which securely commu-nicate with the Aptilo SMP and oversees access and QoS control.

Aptilo SMP works in concert with gateways from all leading ven-dors including Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco and Ericsson.

Small Cell Wi-Fi

Public Wi-Fi

Office Wi-Fi

Home Wi-Fi

Partner NetworkRoaming

Wi-FiGateway

LocalBreak-out

EAP-SIM/AKA

non-SIM

Backhaul to mobile core through tunnels

Access Gateway Adaptors (VSA)

Wi-Fi Policy

DHCP

DNS

Wi-Fi User Experience OSS / BSS Integration

Wi-Fi Service Control Mobile Core Integration

Captive Portal

Wi-Fi SubDatabase

Prepaid /Charging

Quota Mgmt

B2B Adaptors

Guest InternetBYODHotel

EAP TTLS

EAP TLS

EAP-SIM/AKA

SmartLookups

Flexible APIs

Existing portals

OCS / Prepaid

OFCS / Billing

PCRF

CRM

Other databases

ServiceGlue

AdvancedConfigurable

Logic

Policy&

Charging

Trusted /Untrusted

DiameterRADIUS

HLR /HSS

DiameterSS7RADIUSSOAP

3GPP AAA Wi-Fi AAA

No one knows carrier Wi-Fi better than we do!

The Aptilo Service Managment Platform (SMP) is the core component of

Aptilo’s carrier-class Wi-Fi service management and delivery solution. It

works in concert with the Aptilo Service Portal™ (reporting & statistics) and

Aptilo Access Controller™ (access control & policy enforcement) or third-

party access gateways.

Just add the Wi-Fi NetworkThe pre-integrated Aptilo SMP has all functionality needed to build a carrier-class Wi-Fi hotspot service. All you need to do is to add the Wi-Fi network and integrate with your existing OSS/BSS systems.

The AAA+ and Policy PCRF+ core in Aptilo SMP is responsible for the important access control, policy management and charging for the carrier Wi-Fi service. This is a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, which is why we have added a “plus” to the standard terms. These plus values include:

• A unique tight integration between the policy and charging functions.• Advanced APIs.• Aptilo ServiceGlue™ – with an intelligent database interface and configur-

able functions facilitating integration with existing systems.• Dynamic Account Engine.• 3rd party gateway adapters with support for vendor specific attributes.• Extensive native interfaces toward OSS/BSS and mobile core.• Session management.• RADIUS and Diameter support and translation between them.• Wholesale support and Intelligent roaming.• Policies for differentiated services including time schedules.

Furthermore, the Aptilo SMP comes with a number of optional pre-integrated additional functions for Prepaid & Charging, Sub-scriber Management, Web Portals, Statistics & Reporting and Access Control, learn more in our Aptilo SMP datasheet.

Just name the Wi-Fi business model you needIn over 90 carrier-class Wi-Fi deployments in 60 countries, we have been through all the business models there are including recur-ring credit-card billing and exotic pay-ment options such as prepaid through ATM machines. No matter what business mod-els you need we are confident that we will be able to accommodate it. Let us give a few examples.

Seamless Wi-Fi OffloadSeamless Wi-Fi offload is the new mass-market business opportu-nity for mobile network operators (MNO) and service providers sell-ing Wi-Fi capacity to MNOs. Seamless carrier-class Wi-Fi cuts down on CAPEX and can significantly reduce the need for more licensed spec-trum. The keyword here is “Seamless”, 3G/4G users are automati-cally authenticated to the Wi-Fi network through SIM-authentication or through a client in the device.

Aptilo SMP can act as a 3GPP AAA for automatic authentication of users through the SIM credentials (EAP-SIM/AKA). This specific functionality is also available as a stand-alone product - the Aptilo SIM Authentication Server™.

Although EAP-SIM/AKA authentication is clientless in the sense that no app or other third-party client is needed, devices still need to support EAP-SIM/AKA. Today most leading smartphone operat-ing systems support EAP-SIM/AKA including Apple’s iOS, Android 4.0 or above, Blackberry, Nokia (Symbian) and Windows 8. This list is rapidly growing over time.

Learn more about Aptilo’s award-winning offload solution:

• Aptilo Mobile Data Offloading Solution - Data Sheet• Seamless Wi-Fi Offload WHY?: A business opportunity today - White Paper • Seamless Wi-Fi Offload How?: From vision to Reality - White Paper

Monetize Wi-Fi by providing hotspot servicesDo you want to provide ad-hoc Wi-Fi services with online sign-up for users through Web-portals? Aptilo SMP was originally built for these kinds of business models and features rich support for a vari-ety of payment options. Payments through credit card, vouchers, premium SMS, Scratch cards and more can be executed through the native payment support in the Aptilo Web Portals Applica-tion or through integration with external portals and systems.

In addition Aptilo SMP creates Call Detail Records (CDRs) for bill-ing and can minimize the number of CDRs which are necessary to handle the billing of each user session. It can aggregate CDRs that are generated between the policy enforcement nodes and the bill-ing/mediation systems.

Business models based on online sign-up can be a very effective way of attracting new subscribers to your service. Even if you have decided to go for a subscription based model with SIM authenti-cation you will need to have alternative authentication methods for the subscribers’ devices that do not have EAP-SIM/AKA sup-port. The good news is that Aptilo SMP supports them all includ-ing MAC-based authentication, WiSPr Client, One-time-password through SMS, UserID / Password, EAP-TLS and EAP-TTLS.

Shared Wi-Fi Access Utilizing Excess CapacityThere is often excess capacity in your customers Internet connec-tions, especially during daytime when residential subscribers are at work or at night when enterprise subscribers are away from the office. Some operators have taken advantage of this by dividing the Set-top box / Home Wi-Fi Router into two separate parts (SSIDs):

• One for the subscriber (Prioritized)• One for public use.

By doing so they can deploy, virtually overnight, a carrier-class hotspot service with excellent capacity and coverage. They can also gain additional revenue from ad-hoc users and by offering offload capacity to mobile operators.

With Aptilo, you can make sure that excess capacity is used by utiliz-ing the Wi-Fi policy control in the Aptilo SMP so that the subscriber/venue owner does not suffer from the additional public SSID.

Selling Wi-Fi Services to other Businesses (B2B)Healthcare, hospitality, municipalities, airports and the enterprise sector. Our installations can be found in nearly every vertical you could think of. Tap into that business-to-business (B2B) experience1 when developing your own Wi-Fi offerings to make your service attractive to venue owners.

1 20% of Aptilo’s revenue has come from the B2B verticals since 2001

With Aptilo you can provide B2B Wi-Fi services such as:

• Enterprise: Internet Guest Access and support for the Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) concept for employees.

• Hospitality / Healthcare: Free Internet Guest Access and / or chargea-ble Wi-Fi services, often integrated with property management systems (PMS) so the end-user is charged through the Hotel Bill.

• Municipality: Wi-Fi services with separation of public and private use.• Wi-Fi services at crowded public places such as Stadiums and Airports

where support for roaming is particularly important.

Not only will you gain additional revenue from these B2B Wi-Fi ser-vices, you will also get an excellent base for site acquisition for your Wi-Fi network.

Site acquisition is very different for Wi-Fi compared to 3G/4G net-works. In 3G/4G, the mobile operator buys space for their base sta-tions from venue owners. In Wi-Fi, the service provider often has to sell Wi-Fi services to the venue owners instead which may already have some kind of Wi-Fi service. There is a huge opportunity for service providers to replace the existing Wi-Fi with real carrier-class Wi-Fi services.

Service providers can agree with venue owners to get an additional SSID as described above and instantly increase their Wi-Fi footprint. For mobile operators, this additional SSID can be 802.1x based for SIM Authentication and automatic offloading of 3G/4G users to the Wi-Fi network.

The B2B support in Aptilo SMP is crucial for your Wi-Fi project as it will help you in your site acquisition efforts and provide additional revenue.

Wholesale of Wi-Fi servicesSelling Wi-Fi services to other service providers requires features that have been developed in Aptilo SMP over a long period of time.

With volume accounts for wholesale, the wholesale service provider can create prepaid volume accounts that can be sold to retailers. The main idea is that instead of selling individual accounts to end-users, the wholesale service provider allows retailers such as hotels, airports and convention centers to create any type of account that is allowed in the settings of the retailer’s prepaid volume account. The retailer can then create and sell end-user accounts based on their own prepaid volume account and do top-up when the volume account is depleted.

The statistics and reporting function resides in the Aptilo Service Por-tal™ (see separate data sheet) and complements the Aptilo SMP by being the main tool for automatic processing and display of data out-put from the provided service. This includes storage of usage informa-tion and events as well as aggregated statistics and monitoring data.

With the rich reporting features in the Aptilo Service Portal it is easy to create billing data for individual virtual service providers.

Not building your own footprint? You still need SMP!Some mobile operators choose not to build their own Wi-Fi foot-print but instead work with Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs). There is a common misunderstanding that these mobile operators do not need an advanced Wi-Fi service management platform; that it is enough with a generic AAA server. That is sim-ply not the case. Operators that want to maintain control over their Wi-Fi service need a platform such as Aptilo SMP regardless, if they build their own Wi-Fi network or not.

SSID: Public(overcapacity)

SSID: Private(Prioritized)

Home Wi-FiRouter

There is a need for multiple authentication methods to cover the wide vari-

ety of Wi-Fi devices that subscribers have today. Aptilo SMP supports all

popular authentication methods and any combination of them. Many times

the service provider needs to balance security with user experience.

About Aptilo NetworksAptilo Networks is a leading provider of systems to manage mobile data services for Wi-Fi, WiMAX and 3G/LTE networks, including mobile data offloading. Aptilo’s carrier-class solutions boast pre-integrated authentication, policy control and charging functions to maximize functionality and fast-track deployments while minimizing impact on existing systems. Aptilo has a proven interoperability with vendors in the wireless echo-system and a multitude of interfaces and APIs for seamless integration to external systems of choice. Customers can enjoy the option of a hosted delivery using Aptilo Managed Service™ provided as a cloud service from one of our many regional data centers located worldwide, or handled remotely by Aptilo’s experts from servers at customer premises. Aptilo’s solutions are currently in operation in more than 60 countries.

Americas +1-866 861 3900

Asia / Middle East+60 3 2780 6900

Europe / Africa +46-8 5089 8900

www.aptilo.cominfo@aptilo.com

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Critical functions in Aptilo SMP that mobile operators - utilizing a Wi-Fi service provider partner - still need to have in-house include:

• Advanced roaming features.• 3GPP AAA with SIM-authentication.• Charging and billing aggregation.• Integration with mobile core and OSS / BSS for policy and charging.• Statistics & Reporting to validate charges and understand user behaviours.• Use of so-called opaque login. The user is securely forwarded to their

home portal for login (HTTPS). Aptilo SMP creates temporary credentials to login in to the WISP’s network.

Scalability and ReliabilityWith Aptilo’s next-generation architecture you can take the scala-bility issue out of the equation and obtain a linear scalability when adding more servers. The functionality is divided into three distinct layers:

• A management layer for configuration and monitoring• A control layer for protocol-level interactions with external systems• An execution layer for application logic processing

The different layers are distributed over several server nodes to increase capacity where it is needed most and obtain high availabil-ity including geographic redundancy and disaster recovery.

Aptilo ServiceGlue™Aptilo ServiceGlue™ is an integral part of the Aptilo SMP and the smart new way to deploy wireless services. With the Aptilo Service Glue new customer adapted logic can to be added by configuration.

Lookups & parameter mapping

Configurable Functions

Aptilo ServiceGlue™

OOSSSSSOSS

BBSSSSSBSS

SOAP/XMLLDAPRADIUSDiameter

IDI

Diameter, RADIUS, BGP Diameter, RADIUS

ActionAction

RequestRequest

ActionAction

ActionAction

RequestRequest

RequestRequestRequestActionAction

LLooooookkkkkuuuuppppppppLookup

R t

LLooooookkkkkuuuuppppppppLookup

Action/PostAction/Post

LoookokokokkuupupupupupupuppppppLookup

100

101 102

103 104

PCRF

HLR/HSS

Gateway105

The Aptilo ServiceGlue features advanced configurable ruleset-based functions. The functions can receive requests and triggers from gateways and other nodes such as PCRFs and CRM systems, process advanced rule-set based configurable logic, and then push the required actions back to the external gateways and systems. Note that one request can result in multiple actions toward differ-ent nodes in the wireless network.

The functions can utilize the intelligent database interface in Aptilo ServiceGlue to perform multiple lookups and intelligently map the different parameters from these sources to another set of param-eters in the wireless network or other nodes and systems.

Based on the result from these intelligent lookups, new functions can be triggered in the Aptilo ServiceGlue building up a highly flexible logic.

In a mobile data offloading scenario, policy decisions can involve lookups from several locations and then be intelligently mapped to the corresponding parameters in the Wi-Fi network.

With the Aptilo ServiceGlue logic, the Aptilo Service Management Platform becomes a powerful glue between the OSS/BSS/Core and the wireless network, providing truly unique capabilities.

Future proof next generation hotspot 2.0 ready systemIn late 2010 the Wi-Fi Alliance launched a concept they call Hotspot 2.0 primarily focusing on Wi-Fi radio vendor certification and the new IEEE 802.11u standard which facilitates an automatic network discovery and selection of carrier operated Wi-Fi networks.

At the same time the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) – of which Aptilo is a member – launched their Next Generation Hot-spot (NGH) program which primarily focuses on interoperability between operators’ Wi-Fi networks and roaming. Together the two initiatives aim to create advanced Wi-Fi hotspot networks with an improved end-user experience for authentication, security, network selection and roaming.

Ingredients when building a Next Generation Hotspot / Hotspot 2.0 Wi-Fi network:

• An IEEE 802.11u enabled Wi-Fi network (facilitates interworking with external networks)

• An IEEE 802.1x enabled Wi-Fi network with WPA2-Enterprise air interface encryption (radio link as secure as 3G/4G)

• Support for EAP-SIM/AKA SIM-based authentication or TLS/TTLS clients (authentication as secure and seamless as 3G/4G)

• Support for roaming

The Aptilo Service Management Platform provides all the necessary back-end service management functionality for a Next Generation Hotspot / Hotspot 2.0 Wi-Fi network. These functions are also avail-able in the Aptilo 3GPP AAA+ Server™ for a mobile data offload-ing scenario.