AccessNets. Third International Conference on Access Networks, AccessNets 2008, Las Vegas, NV, USA, October 15-17, 2008. Revised Papers

Research Article

Supporting Session and Access Point Mobility in a Large Multi-provider Multi-vendor Municipal WiFi Network

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  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-642-04648-3_7,
        author={Timo Ojala and Toni Hakanen and Ossi Salmi and Mikko Kentt\aa{}l\aa{} and Juha Tiensyrj\aa{}},
        title={Supporting Session and Access Point Mobility in a Large Multi-provider Multi-vendor Municipal WiFi Network},
        proceedings={AccessNets. Third International Conference on Access Networks, AccessNets 2008, Las Vegas, NV, USA, October 15-17, 2008. Revised Papers},
        proceedings_a={ACCESSNETS},
        year={2012},
        month={5},
        keywords={municipal wireless network design mobility roaming handover},
        doi={10.1007/978-3-642-04648-3_7}
    }
    
  • Timo Ojala
    Toni Hakanen
    Ossi Salmi
    Mikko Kenttälä
    Juha Tiensyrjä
    Year: 2012
    Supporting Session and Access Point Mobility in a Large Multi-provider Multi-vendor Municipal WiFi Network
    ACCESSNETS
    Springer
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-04648-3_7
Timo Ojala1,*, Toni Hakanen1,*, Ossi Salmi1,*, Mikko Kenttälä1,*, Juha Tiensyrjä1,*
  • 1: University of Oulu
*Contact email: Timo.Ojala@ee.oulu.fi, Toni.Hakanen@ee.oulu.fi, Ossi.Salmi@ee.oulu.fi, Mikko.Kenttala@ee.oulu.fi, Juha.Tiensyrja@ee.oulu.fi

Abstract

We present a simple network design for a large multi-provider municipal WiFi network where the WiFi zones of multiple organizations are merged into a single IP subnet at a central layer 2 switch. The design provides built-in session mobility support for the WiFi clients using the network, without any additional software at the client. We also provide a simple design for mobile access points so that they belong to the same IP subnet. We analyze the session mobility of the over 12000 devices using our network in January 2008. We also provide a comparison of the usage of multi-mode mobile devices and WiFi laptops, and characterize the roaming performance of a standard WiFi laptop in our network.