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MACH is instrumental in Swisscom’s implementation of WRIX-d (Wireless Roaming Intermediary eXchange)
Publication: 03.04.2008 by Christian Thrysoe
The birth of WRIX - how WBA, MACH and Swisscom are taking it to the next chapter
The Wireless LAN (WLAN) industry has so far been focused on providing access to visitors on a local pre-paid basis, i.e. with direct payment granting the user access to the service over a limited period of time.
With the evolution of roaming; driven by the fact that more and more (primarily) business users require access when travelling abroad, WLAN roaming commenced slowly. It was also driven by the fact that the pre-paid model is inadequate for wireless data roaming, as it is cumbersome and non-secure in regards to service charging. This resulted in the market being driven by individual players who needed to interconnect in order to support wireless roaming.
Pioneering WBA
The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) was established in 2003 with a core group of 6 companies who all agreed to enable WLAN roaming amongst their group. This group of operators have now grown to more than 26 operators worldwide, offering in excess of 85,000 hot-spots that are available on a post-paid basis for their subscribers.
MACH is an affiliate partner member of WBA.
With such a rapid growth in the number of WBA members, roaming management became a resource demanding task. This in turn, prevented the WLAN roaming managers from focusing on extending their footprints, due to the workload associated with handling the individually diverse roaming agreements and settlement procedures in place between WBA members.
Award-winning WRIX
As a result of this, WBA decided to establish a Working Group with the task of creating a common standard to be deployed between the WBA members – Wireless Roaming Intermediary eXchange. The aim of WRIX is to ensure consistency in the interfaces between the different roaming partners, thus cost-optimising the daily workload, routines and number of formats to support.
MACH was invited to be part of this Working Group and has participated throughout the specification of the WRIX standard, which is divided into WRIX-i: RADIUS interconnect, WRIX-d: Data Clearing and WRIX-f: Financial settlement elements. The WRIX standard was awarded the 1st prize at the Wireless Broadband Innovation Awards in 2007.
MACH is the only provider of WRIX in the world supporting all 3 WRIX elements. MACH is happy to provide the services to one of the founding companies of the WBA Executive Committee - Swisscom Mobile. In addition, MACH provides services to two other WBA members.
Successful implementation of WRIX-d
Swisscom has decided to start using the WRIX-d in live operations in conjunction with an influential global operator. This follows the successful testing of the WRIX-d concept and technical implementation which Swisscom outsourced to MACH.
MACH has supported Swisscom by generating and sending required wholesale billing data to its roaming partners, to be used as the basis for settlement. Furthermore, the WRIX-d service provides rating and clearing, generation of financial data and allows reconciliation at various levels. Swisscom can rest assured that its invoicing is handled according to agreed contracts with support to ensure fast dispute resolution.
According to a recent Press Release issued by Swisscom, “The experience from the test is that the RADIUS environment is quite stable… Learning from the test is that the RADIUS capacity must be carefully measured and increased when necessary, the timing issue to be monitored. Another learning is that it is possible to measure billing data in a RADIUS environment as long as the environment is maintained and a standard such as WRIX is implemented and the parties are compliant.”
The future
Creating and setting standards is the only way forward to achieve the success of wireless roaming, irrespective of the underlying technology, i.e. to support roaming for WiMAX, CDMA data or other technologies. MACH is working closely with WBA to present and promote the standardisation work performed within WBA.
For further information, please e-mail Christian Thrysře at cht@mach.com
Related links:
Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA)
Swisscom Mobile
