RSM-WISP: Roaming and Service Management in Hotspot Networks Through a Policy Based Management Architecture

This paper describes RSM-WISP, a new management architecture designed for WISPs to facilitate the implementation and management of the services they offer at the access side of the WLAN, and to manage roaming contracts between WISPs. Our architecture is based upon the policy based management principles as introduced by the IETF, combined with more intelligence at the network edge. RSM-WISP adopts an architecture that is composed of two elements: a WISP management center (MC) that deploy policies and monitors all the WLANs, and programmable access router (CPE) located in each WLAN. The CPE ensure service enforcement, service differentiation (access to different service levels) and guarantee, user access management, and dynamic WLAN adaptation according to user’s SLA (service level agreement). Concerning roaming management, it is achieved on the CPE through multiple service provider support capabilities.