Agreement reached on a root server for wireless network roaming

25.05.2004

The wireless local area (WLAN) networks of universities and research institutions will soon be open for access by guest lecturers, researchers, and students. CSC, the Finnish IT center for science, which is responsible for the Funet maintenance, has signed an agreement with Arch Red Oy on the implementation of a network roaming service. The users of organizations sharing the service will be identified and given access to the network when they visit within the coverage area of another member organization.

For the network roaming service to be supplied, CSC’s role is to provide hands-on coordination.. Arch Red is responsible for the technical implementation of the WLAN roaming and the maintenance of the main server. The universities and research institutions locally develop the functionality and the coverage areas of their own WLAN networks.

The network roaming service uses the existing RADIUS user identification servers by connecting them into an integrated RADIUS hierarchy through the root roaming service supplied by Arch Red. Communication between the user identification servers is handled through the RADIUS protocol. Data security will be realized through IPSEC. The implementation of the future WLAN authentication techniques, such as 802.1X, will not necessitate any radical changes to the network roaming infrastructure.

The network roaming has been piloted within the Funet network during the spring. Current member organizations and wireless networks include, among others, Tampere University of Technology in the area of Tampere, PanOulu in the area of Oulu, SparkNet in Turku, Wireless Lappeenranta Network in Lappeenranta, and WirLab in Seinäjoki.

For additional information, please contact:

Managing Director Karri Huhtanen, Arch Red Oy, karri.huhtanen@archred.com, +358 44 087 6546

Juha Oinonen, CSC, juha.oinonen@csc.fi, +358 9 457 3208

Arch Red Oy

Arch Red is a privately owned company providing its customers with tailored wireless and wired data communications solutions and related specialist services, such as system design and architecture.

CSC

CSC, the Finnish IT center for science, is owned by the Ministry of Education. CSC provides IT support and resources for universities and research institutions: modeling and computing services as well as information services. The Funet communication links provide research workers with Finland's widest selection of scientific software and databases and Finland's most powerful supercomputing environment.