1. The ProvinciaWiFi project in Rome aimed to reduce the digital divide by providing hundreds of free WiFi access points across the province using open source software. 2. It used a centralized management system called OpenWISP to monitor over 1,000 access points and serve over 240,000 registered users. 3. The success of ProvinciaWiFi led to the creation of the Free ItaliaWiFi network connecting over 30 public administrations and nearly 1,800 hotspots across Italy.

1. October 16th, 2012 - Rome - Networks 2012 - 15th International Telecommunications Network Strategy and Planning Symposium
ProvinciaWiFi: a 1000 hotspot
free, public, open
source Wi-Fi network
The history, choices and technology of a success case
Maurizio Goretti(°) (m.goretti@caspur.it)
Davide Guerri(°) (d.guerri@openwisp.org)
Francesco Loriga(#) (f.loriga@provincia.roma.it)
(°) CASPUR - Rome, Italy
(#) Province of Rome - Rome, Italy

2. The ProvinciaWiFi
project
ProvinciaWiFi started in the summer of
2008 with two main goals
reduce digital divide by fostering and
facilitating the use of ICTs
provide hundreds of broadband
access points in the provincial
territory of Rome using the WiFi
technology
October 16th, 2012 - Rome - Networks 2012 - 15th International Telecommunications Network Strategy and Planning Symposium

3. Some challenges we
faced
italian legal framework ruling public
communication networks
strong requirements about users identification
and data-retention (VS privacy rights)
digital divided areas w/o broadband
infrastructures
management and monitoring of hundreds of
access points spread across a large territory
October 16th, 2012 - Rome - Networks 2012 - 15th International Telecommunications Network Strategy and Planning Symposium

4. Some design choices
self-registration for end-users to the Wi-Fi service
by a simple (free) mobile phone number
verification
indirect identification: in Italy mobile operators
have to acquire an ID card copy of their
customers
centralized systems for users and access points
management
allows the integration of existing and currently
operative connectivity lines through VPNs
October 16th, 2012 - Rome - Networks 2012 - 15th International Telecommunications Network Strategy and Planning Symposium

5. completely open philosophy
Some designusing open source
no vendor lock-in
choices
software
experiences sharing and results
dissemination
we aimed to sustainable and replicable
solutions
the technical solutions had to be
consistent and had to be scalable... not
Just a Bunch Of (open-source) Tools
therefore a new solution based on low-cost
October 16th, 2012 - Rome - Networks 2012 - 15th International Telecommunications Network Strategy and Planning Symposium
hardware and personalized software was

6. The OpenWISP project
The Provinciawifi technical infrastructure is
based on OpenWISP
today used by 15 Public Administration
networks (and by some private sector
companies)
OpenWISP is an open-source software suite
that can be used to implement many
different Wi-Fi architectures
it provides simple interfaces to many
tools typically used by a Wireless ISP
October 16th, 2012 - Rome - Networks 2012 - 15th International Telecommunications Network Strategy and Planning Symposium

7. The OpenWISP project
The OpenWISP suite includes four independent applications and a
middleware:
user base management - OpenWISP User Management
System (OWUMS)
access point management and access point firmware -
OpenWISP Manager (OWM) and OpenWISP Firmware (OWF)
access point monitoring - OpenWISP Geographic Monitoring
(OWGM)
captive portal - OpenWISP Captive Portals Manager
(OWCPM)
The middleware allows the integration of the OW* tools and the
integration of third party applications
October 16th, 2012 - Rome - Networks 2012 - 15th International Telecommunications Network Strategy and Planning Symposium

8. Open WISP User Management
System
October 16th, 2012 - Rome - Networks 2012 - 15th International Telecommunications Network Strategy and Planning Symposium

9. Open WISP User Management
System
Fast and easy sign-up to the Wi-Fi service
Account management and password
recovery, accesses and traffic stats
history browsing
Web UI with a mobile version
Easy yet powerful users base
management tool
October 16th, 2012 - Rome - Networks 2012 - 15th International Telecommunications Network Strategy and Planning Symposium

10. Open WISP manager & firmware
October 16th, 2012 - Rome - Networks 2012 - 15th International Telecommunications Network Strategy and Planning Symposium

11. Open WISP manager &
firmware
OpenWISP Manager
centralized management of several hundred access points
template-based access point modeling
encapsulation of multiple VLANs in a single L2 VPN
OpenWISP Firmware
based on the openWRT linux distribution
supports any device supported by openWRT
permits the simple installation of devices with an easy-to-
use web based UI
October 16th, 2012 - Rome - Networks 2012 - 15th International Telecommunications Network Strategy and Planning Symposium

12. The OpenWISP Firmware works
behind a firewall, even if NAT is used
1. At boot time every OWF access point
creates a setup VPN (openVPN) with the
OWM server
2. OWF access point requests and
downloads its configuration inside this
setup VPN
3. The new configuration is deployed. For
instance another VPN is created for WiFi
users traffic encapsulation
4. The setup VPN remains up, so it is
possible the monitoring and the
management of the access point (even if
it’s behind a firewall).
5. Periodically the access point asks the
OWM server if its configuration is changed
and, if so, restarts form the point number 2.
October 16th, 2012 - Rome - Networks 2012 - 15th International Telecommunications Network Strategy and Planning Symposium

13. Building Provinciawifi
October 16th, 2012 - Rome - Networks 2012 - 15th International Telecommunications Network Strategy and Planning Symposium

14. Building Provinciawifi
the NOC was hosted and managed by CASPUR,
which also provided the Internet connectivity
the first set of hotspots was installed on the premises
of the Province of Rome, choosing locations on the
basis of their “public” vocation
access points have been connected to the LANs of
the Province of Rome and, through VPNs, to the
NOC
A full deployment plan was started after a few months
of experimental service
October 16th, 2012 - Rome - Networks 2012 - 15th International Telecommunications Network Strategy and Planning Symposium

15. Some network numbers
more than 1,000 hotspots installed
registered users are over 240,000
about 2,500 new user registrations per
week
5,500 unique logins per day (on workdays)
NOC peak (Internet) traffic is 45+45Mbps
(rush hours)
October 16th, 2012 - Rome - Networks 2012 - 15th International Telecommunications Network Strategy and Planning Symposium

16. Further activity and work in progress
October 16th, 2012 - Rome - Networks 2012 - 15th International Telecommunications Network Strategy and Planning Symposium

17. Free ItaliaWiFi
At the end of 2010 the Province of Rome, the Autonomous
Region of Sardinia and the City of Venice started the “Free
ItaliaWiFi” project whose objectives are:
spread the use of free public Wi-Fi, foster the development of
new networks by Public Administrations
facilitate citizens who use the public Wi-Fi networks by
creating a unique federalized authentication system
to promote some fundamental principles for public Wi-Fi
networks:
free open access for all citizens, network neutrality, open
standards, ...
October 16th, 2012 - Rome - Networks 2012 - 15th International Telecommunications Network Strategy and Planning Symposium

18. Free ItaliaWiFi
as of october 2012, 34 Public Administrations have joined the “Free
ItaliaWiFi” project
20 networks are fully integrated (14 are about to be
interconnected)
nearly 1,800 hotspots
about 350,000 users
the IX-WiFi (Inter-eXchange Wi-Fi) was built in order to enable the
mutual recognition of user credentials across different domains
this is a proxy-RADIUS infrastructure with secure, dedicated
virtual or physical links between each federated entity and a
central “dispatch” point
October 16th, 2012 - Rome - Networks 2012 - 15th International Telecommunications Network Strategy and Planning Symposium

19. EduRoam
an experiment with the GARR Consortium started at the end of 2011
evaluate and deploy the EduRoam service on OpenWISP access
points along with ProvinciaWiFi
EduRoam (EDUcation ROAMing) is a secure, world- wide roaming
access service
developed for the international research and education
community
uses the state-of-the-art technology for network security
the experimentation has been successful
a set of hotspots now broadcast EduRoam eSSID and a
deployment plan is being prepared
October 16th, 2012 - Rome - Networks 2012 - 15th International Telecommunications Network Strategy and Planning Symposium

20. EduRoam - tech
In this setup two VLANs
are incapsulated into a
single layer 2 VPN tunnel
one for authenticated
traffic, the other one
for RADIUS traffic
the authentication server
that is hosted by the GARR
consortium uses the
EduRoam proxy server
hierarchy for end-user
credential verification
October 16th, 2012 - Rome - Networks 2012 - 15th International Telecommunications Network Strategy and Planning Symposium

21. Maurizio Goretti(°) (m.goretti@caspur.it)
Davide Guerri(°) (d.guerri@openwisp.org)
http://openwisp.org
Francesco Loriga(#) (f.loriga@provincia.roma.it)
--
info@openwisp.org
(°) CASPUR - Rome, Italy
(#) Province of Rome - Rome, Italy
END
October 16th, 2012 - Rome - Networks 2012 - 15th International Telecommunications Network Strategy and Planning Symposium