The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) has introduced a zero-touch framework for seamless and secure IoT device onboarding.

The framework proposes a zero-touch onboarding process for IoT wifi devices, integrating the simplicity and security of its OpenRoaming technologies with FIDO Device Onboard (FDO).

The “OpenRoaming for IoT – FIDO Device Onboarding Framework” (wballiance.com/openroaming-for-iot-fido-device-onboard-framework) report details how these technologies work together to simplify and secure the onboarding process for IoT devices, transforming large scale IoT deployments.

The integration between OpenRoaming and FDO is a milestone in the realm of wifi device onboarding and addresses critical difficulties of large-scale IoT deployments by providing a secure, scalable and automated option. Automating the onboarding process allows headless and other pre-configured FDO IoT devices to be onboarded straight out of the box using OpenRoaming. They can then receive new OpenRoaming credentials, allowing them to connect via OpenRoaming permanently, or receive credentials to connect to a private wifi network for a permanent connection.

Wifi-based IoT devices have historically faced difficulties due to the complexity of manual onboarding processes, making large-scale deployment inefficient. By leveraging the OpenRoaming global network of millions of hotspots, the onboarding process becomes seamless, accelerating the adoption of wifi-based IoT devices across sectors such as smart cities, manufacturing and logistics.

Benefits of the framework include:

• Zero-touch, secure onboarding: Automates device onboarding, enhancing operational efficiency and ensuring secure authentication.
• OpenRoaming and FDO integration: Describes how pre-configured OpenRoaming and FDO credentials enable seamless device connectivity across networks.
• Alternative network environments: Covers complex deployments and provisioning problems.
• Supply chain security: Ensures device security through ownership vouchers and cryptographic mechanisms.

“This new framework will turbocharge secure and efficient IoT device deployments, overcoming the challenges of onboarding IoT devices into a wifi network,” said Tiago Rodrigues, CEO of the WBA. “This framework standardises OpenRoaming for FDO, encouraging a widespread adoption and cross-industry collaboration, and will enable a wide range of industries to benefit from improved operational efficiency and security across their IoT devices into wifi networks.”

Tomas Bäckström, director of delivery services at Enea (www.enea.com), added: “Since 2018, our vision has been to enable secure, automatic wifi onboarding by harnessing existing wifi IoT device certificates. This requires a united, industry-wide effort, and WBA is the ideal body to lead the charge.”

And Necati Canpolat, wireless architect at Intel (www.intel.com) and WBA board director, said: “WBA’s work on zero-touch onboarding with OpenRoaming and managing the ownership of industrial IoT devices with FIDO will address a critical industry challenge and facilitate large-scale deployments of these devices. Intel is proud to lead this initiative at WBA.”

Founded in 2003, the WBA (wballiance.com) is a global organisation that connects people with the latest wifi initiatives.