WifiZoneCloud: A Cloud-Based Wi-Fi Hotspot Platform

Abstract

Today, there are millions of Wi-Fi hotspots available by diverse service providers such as operators, public spaces, enterprises, and even cities. With the developments on OpenRoaming approach, cloud federation, automatic global roaming, efficient user onboarding and network automation have become important requirements for stakeholders within the ecosystem. This study aims to present a cloud based hotspot platform solution called WifiZoneCloud which enriches the limited hotspot capabilities of new generation firewall, access point and similar network devices; provides roaming between different locations of an institution; keeps the use of the network under control and makes the network reportable, and even performs required logging. With diverse authentication tools, the platform ensures high security according to the needs of users. Above all, these operations are completely administered in the cloud environment. The proposed new platform is likely to pave the way for the establishment of the global Wi-Fi network and present valuable opportunities in the 5G era.