Airpath Wireless is rolling out a new host platform for metro-scale broadband wireless deployments.
The platform, called RoamBOSS Metro, promises a carrier-class open OSS (Operational Support System) with roaming and clearinghouse capabilities that will help mobile professionals easily connect and reconcile billing charges as they move from one metro area to another.
The product is one of several expected to be announced at the Digital Cities conference in Philadelphia, where vendors and advocates of municipal Wi-Fi projects are meeting.
Officials of Waltham, Mass.-based Airpath Wireless Inc. said RoamBOSS is designed to meet the standards in RFPs (requests for proposal) being advanced by cities such as Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Atlanta and others that have undertaken the construction of metropolitan-area networks.
The open platform is designed to enable Internet access to the public as it separates and secures communications among city departments and employees and permits visitors from other areas who subscribe to different service providers to connect back to their services from the metro network.
RoamBOSS uses a model similar to cellular telephone networks, in which a single network operator provides users with open access to other networks. Bryan Thompson, president of RedMoon Inc., a citywide Wi-Fi systems developer, called that capability a “must-have” in metro environments.