Network selection for public WLANs

Wireless LAN (WLAN) Access Networks are being deployed in a variety of public places. With an ever-increasing number of WLAN users, public area hotspot locations, such as airports, are becoming prime real estate for operators competing to provide this service. Since operators cannot install their own WLAN infrastructure at all locations where subscribers may want to use the service, roaming agreements that allow customers to access WLAN service offered by roaming partner operators are essential. The presence of several operators that can provide WLAN services, directly or indirectly, via roaming in a hotspot poses a problem for the user I WLAN tenninal to discover and select the right network for AAA purposes. For the user, the desired experience is similar to cellular networks, where they are able to use the service without any knowledge of how the process of network discovery and selection is done. This paper defines the scope of this problem and provides realworld use-case scenarios where WLAN network discovery and selection is needed. It discusses possible access networkdependent and access network-independent solutions to the problem. It then analyses these solutions in light of the use-case scenarios and suggests preferred solutions.