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[November 19, 2003]
Funk Software Announces Steel-Belted Radius/SS7 Gateway
Funk Software announced the Steel-Belted Radius/SS7 Gateway, a new product which lets GSM operators offer public WLAN access to their customers, while leveraging their existing
mobility, customer care, and billing infrastructure. The solution enables subscribers to roam into WLANs and seamlessly access their network-based communication services from a single, trusted source.
The Steel-Belted Radius/SS7 Gateway bridges the IP-based public WLAN infrastructure and a GSM operator's existing SIM-based subscriber management system. SIM - Subscriber Information Module - is the hardware card embedded
in phones (and swappable to PC cards) that contains a subscriber's network access credentials. With this product, subscribers can connect from an 802.1X WLAN hotspot, and have their credentials verified against the GSM
operator's existing SIM-based infrastructure, thereby gaining access to the network.
The Steel-Belted Radius/SS7 Gateway offers GSM operators four major benefits:
* Offer public WLAN access, without having to upgrade customer care infrastructure - This allows operators to tap into a burgeoning market, without having to change their authentication, point-of-sale kiosks, customer service, or billing systems to accommodate the new service.
* Leverage existing roaming relationships with other operators - Subscribers will have WLAN access from their trusted GSM provider's venues, as well as venues serviced by partner operators, and billing will flow through correctly, based on roaming relationships already set up between providers.
* Easily tap revenue opportunity within existing customer base - A major advantage of the SS7 Gateway is that it allows GSM operators to offer a new service based on hardware their customers are already running. This lets
them easily convert customers to WLAN access subscribers.
* Offer over-the-airwaves data security - Another final benefit of the SS7 Gateway is that it lets GSM operators offer secure public WLAN access. Subscriber data will be transmitted securely over the wireless link - encrypted via Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) or dynamic WEP encryption
protocols - preventing wireless eavesdropping within the hotspot.
"Earlier this year, TSI launched a global corporate initiative to increase Wi-Fi usage and ultimately drive revenue increases for industry players in the Wi-Fi market," said Michael O'Brien, TSI vice president of marketing.
"We had the roaming, clearing and settlement solutions in place to make the Wi-Fi business model profitable for wireless operators. With the addition of Funk Software's Steel-Belted Radius/SS7 Gateway, we now offer secure public
WLAN access for GSM operators, rounding out our end-to-end solution in North America as well as Europe."
Steel-Belted Radius/SS7 Gateway is the result of an OEM agreement between Funk Software and Ulticom, Inc., a leading provider of telecommunications signaling software enabling mobility, location, payment, switching, and messaging services. The product comprises:
* Funk Software's Steel-Belted Radius/Service Provider Edition RADIUS/AAA server with EAP-SIM plug-in module
* Ulticom's Signalware SS7 product, software and board that provides enabling authentication and authorization services by converting WLAN access requests into GSM MAP/SS7 messages
In addition, an EAP-SIM-compatible 802.1X access client such as Funk Software's Odyssey(r) Client is required for the wireless device.
"Our RADIUS/AAA solutions are already in widespread use on public data networks," said Joe Ryan, vice president of Funk Software. "The SS7 Gateway represents an extension of our AAA and WLAN security expertise into the world's GSM networks, giving operators a way to capitalize on the explosive public WLAN access market. We believe we will become a strategic vendor to these operators as well."
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