Roam Protocol: Standards

Roam’s global WiFi OpenRoaming network adheres to security standards from across the Web3 and telecommunications industries. In addition to implementing DID (decentralized identifier) and VC (verifiable credentials) standards to protect users’ on-chain privacy, Roam Network follows these performance and security standards:

-WBA OpenRoaming standards

-5G

-IEEE 802.11 Extensible Authentication Protocols

-Hotspot 2.0

-Trust-Over-IP

WBA OpenRoaming Standards

Roam adheres to all WiFi OpenRoaming network security standards as established by the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA):

-Wireless Roaming Intermediary Exchange (WRIX)

-Cyber Security

-WiFi CERTIFIED Passpoint

WRIX

WRIX guidelines provide a harmonized OpenRoaming framework: they allow different WiFi providers to integrate their networks under an OpenRoaming alliance, which enables seamless roaming amongst and between each providers’ access points (routers).

Cyber Security

The WBA requires its OpenRoaming members to ensure secure WiFi connections. This means encrypting communications between user-devices and Roam routers, as well as other measures designed to avoid hacks and data exposure.

WiFi CERTIFIED Passpoint

The WiFi Alliance’s CERTIFIED passpoint standards outline the basic features of the WiFi connection process that providers need to incorporate to integrate their networks via an OpenRoaming mechanism, which allows for automatic connections at either providers’ access points. These features include:

-Automatic reconnection to a network after initial connection

-Automatic network discovery: the OpenRoaming network becomes visible from a device without needing to manually input network information

-Roaming between access points

-WPA3 (WiFi Protected Access 3) security: the WiFi Alliance’s latest security standards for wireless network access

All Roam Network access points include these passpoint features.

5G

Another wireless networking standard implemented by Roam’s WiFi OpenRoaming network is 5G. In addition to setting performance and security standards for network connections, 5G emphasizes network convergence and interoperability. This is because it sets standards that apply across different types of networks, including cellular, bluetooth, WiFi and Internet-of-Things (IoT). This means the Roam OpenRoaming network’s 5G compatibility allows cellular users to offload tasks to WiFi for reduced data costs.

More specifically, 5G standards include data communication and storage technology that enables the integration of WiFi and cellular services. This type of integration allows for services such as WiFi calling, where cellular users ‘offload’ their service requirements onto a 5G WiFi network. This harmony between network types also allows for cellular + WiFi OpenRoaming services, where users device’s can switch automatically between WiFi and cellular networks in order to stay connected to the internet as they travel.

Extensible Authentication Protocol With IEEE 802.1 Security

An Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) is a framework WiFi providers use to develop their user authentication mechanisms that securely grant access to the internet. The architectural framework provides WiFi operators with tools for modifying their existing–and creating new–authentication methods.

The framework is compatible with common WiFi access technologies, such as IEEE 802.11: a set of wireless network performance standards met by Roam Network. By implementing EAPs, Roam Network enables future improvements in and applications for their authentication protocol.

Trust-Over-IP

Trust-Over-IP is a technology and protocol stack from the Linux foundation designed to help developers create safe and effective digital networks by establishing trust between their users. The type of trust in question represents an alternative to the trust between each individual user of a network and the centralized entity that authorizes their connection.

Instead, the ToIP creates a network-wide trust which can help developers achieve decentralized networks that grow organically, without the permission of a central authority. These networks use authorization methods based not on a single authority but the entire ‘web’ of network users. While many existing networks use central servers to authenticate users by storing their passwords in a database, ToIP tools allow for decentralized authentication.

Roam’s OpenRoaming network implements Trust-Over-IP by delivering a fully decentralized network connection protocol that eliminates the need for a trusted central ISP, and instead relies on on-chain, open-ledger data management.