WISPr


WISPr or Wireless Internet Service Provider roaming is a draft protocol submitted to the Wi-Fi Alliance that allows users to roam between wireless internet service providers in a fashion similar to that which allows cellphone users to roam between carriers. A RADIUS server is used to authenticate the subscriber's credentials.
It covers best practices for authenticating users via 802.1X or the Universal Access Method, the latter being another name for browser-based login at a captive portal hotspot. It requires that RADIUS be used for AAA and defines the required RADIUS attributes. For authentication by smart-clients, Appendix D defines the Smart Client to Access Gateway Interface Protocol, which is an XML-based protocol for authentication. Smart-client software use this so-called WISPr XML to seamlessly login to HotSpots without the need for the user to interact with a captive portal.
The draft WISPr specification is no longer available from the Wi-Fi Alliance. It was submitted in a manner that does not conform with current IPR policies within the Wi-Fi Alliance.
Intel and others have started a similar proposal — IRAP, which has now been rolled into ETSI Telecommunications and Internet converged Services and Protocols for Advanced Networking ; TS 183 019 and TS 183 020.
The WISPr 2.0 specification was published by the Wireless Broadband Alliance on March 2010.