Apr. 25, 2023
WBA OpenRoaming Implementers Call

Behind the Scenes

OpenRoaming implementationin TOKYO FREE Wi-Fi
Hideaki Goto Tohoku University / Cityroam

A part of this work was supported by the Beyond 5G R&D Promotion program at
National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) in Japan.

1Renewed “TOKYO FREE Wi-Fi” supports OpenRoaming Released on Apr. 1, 2023
 Tokyo Metropolitan Government + KDDI / Wire & Wireless (Wi2) Enhanced security, safety, and usability. https://wi-fi.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/en/2

OpenRoaming hotspots provided by the Tokyo Met. Govt.
 4 new sites in Apr. 2023
 600+ sites planned in 2023

Smart Poles and Digital Signages
in Nishi-Shinjuku Area (2021-2022)+3

The system wasn’t built in a day…
 2017-2018: Participated in the City Wi-Fi Roaming 2018: Launch of Cityroam 2019: OpenRoaming 2020: OpenRoaming adoption in Cityroam
 2021: Nishi-Shinjuku Smart Poles project by TMG
 2022: TMG adopted Cityroam (pilot service) 2023: TOKYO FREE Wi-Fi with OpenRoaming (Cityroam’s backend)… but the development can be accelerated.
4Nationwide Cityroam deployment in Japan Cityroam, a federation providing secure roaming system for Public

Wi-Fi since 2018.
 All venues provide both eduroam and OpenRoaming (2020-).
 Multi-operator, multi-vendor(as of Apr. 2023)
 Unique venues across the nation.
(90+ spots)5

Nishi-Shinjuku Smart Poles by Tokyo Met. Govt.
 PoC and pilot service in Smart City project.
 eduroam, Cityroam, and OpenRoaming on 22 smart poles.

(2021-2022)
 Pilot for the next generation Free Wi-Fi in Tokyo. (2022-2023)
Govt.
BuildingShinjuku
Stationeduroam
accesses: 75%6

Demands and Challenges Value propositions to owners and end-users
 Lack of future vision for digital society Wi-Fi for tourism isn’t enough.
 Users are so accustomed to Open Network + PSK.
 People don’t care about security so much.

 Onsite / Online Sign-Up
 Support for tourists having no internet connection at all.

 Municipalities want/need to accept as many users as possible.
 Still so many old devices(Android 9, 10, iOS 13, 14, PC with no Passpoint support, …)
 Trouble-free Some glitches and incompatibilities on some devices.

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Value proposition
 Support for Research & Education
 Not only high-edu but also K-12.

eduroam isquite attractive.

 Allow kids to use digital textbooks and video streaming

at various places.
 Support for Digital Society
 Everyone needs access to digital services.
 Multi-operator, multi-vendor scheme.
 Usage data analysis / Disaster mitigation
 High speed & stability: Wi-Fi 6/6E + 5G
 Wi-Fi as an infrastructure for IoT

 Tourism Wi-Fi roaming is a high-profile feature.
 SIM-based authentication by telecom operators is in high demand.

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Sign-up and onboarding
App-free, easy onboarding.

Federated Onboarding with web-based provisioning(+ legacy email-based registration)

Sign-up users are growing, buteduroam and SIM-auth, provided byCityroam, still account for high percentage.

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Technical problems and workarounds
 Passpoint doesn’t always work well on Android 9, 10.

Passpoint sometimes become unusable on iPhone/iPad (until factory reset).
No Passpoint support on ChromeOS.
 Provide a common SSID “cityroam” for 802.1X use.
 Provide instructions for manual setting.
 Android enforces domain name matching.

 Align FQDN with that of server cert.

(This restriction makes it difficult to use a common FQDN in a multioperator roaming environment.)
 Some interoperability issues between AP and User Device.
 Set 11w to “Enabled (allow unsupported clients)” on Meraki APs…, etc.
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For more information,

https://wballiance.com/resource/openroamingcase-study-japan-by-cityroam/https://wballiance.com/kddi-and-wire-wireless-announce-apublic-wi-fi-infrastructure-supporting-openroaming/

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