The MIAKO'NET Public Wireless Internet Service in Kyoto

1
The MIAKO.NET Public Wireless Internet Service in
Kyoto

• FUJIKAWA Kenji
• (Kyouto University fujikawa_at_i.kyoto-u.ac.jp)
• KOMURA Takaaki
• (ASTEM RI komura_at_astem.or.jp)
• OKABE Yasuo
• (Kyoto University okabe_at_i.kyoto-u.ac.jp)

2
Overview of MIAKO.NET

• Wireless hotspot services have started in Japan
• Most existing public wireless Internet projects
  provide their service in hot spots, relatively
  small spaces.
• MIAKO.NET (Mobile Internet Access in KyotO) is a
  public wireless Internet service project in Kyoto
  Pref. Japan
• MIAKO' is also a Latin spelling of a Japanese
  word ?''
• a specific meaning of the ancient Japanese
  capital Kyoto (??)
• Has already set up more than 200 access points in
  Kyoto
• Some of them are outdoors
• Users can move freely in the area, over a mile,
  without loosing wireless connection.
• MIAKO.NET is its volunteerism business model
• This is the most unique point

3
History
4
Basic Principles of MIAKO.NET

• MIAKO.NET is intended to attract visitors and
  tourists in large areas
• Many APs are equipped with outdoor long-range
  antennas
• Our service is intended to be used not only by
  notebook PC users, but also by advanced PDA
• PDA users try to get information via Internet
  even when walking.
• List of representative service areas

5
Three APs seamlessly covers the entrance hall of
the Kyoto Station Building
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MIAKO.NET Area Map
7
Assigning Global IP Addresses

• MIAKO.NET assigns all our registered users their
  own fixed global IPv4 addresses each, without any
  fee
• Free from evil NAT!
• Assigning a global fixed IP address for each node
  is valuable rather in mobile situation
• It makes drastically easy for the mobile node
  user to have a mobile server
• such as live-video stream server, and VoIP phones

8
Two Techniques of Assingning Global IP Addresses

• Microsoft PPTP (Point-to-point Tunneling
  Protocol)
• Advantage in easiness of initial setting up
• PPTP is shipped as a standard component with
  client OS like Windows98/Me/2000/XP and Mac OS X
• Mobile IP
• Provides real mobility
• Mainly on PDA clients

9
Security Considerations

• We have to prevent from
• Tapping,
• Illegal users (they may send SPAM or virus mails)
• Man-in-the-middle attacks utilizing bogus APs.
• The secret key of WEP is shared by all users, and
  it gives no protection against tapping by another
  user who has the key
• IEEE802.1x (or ongoing IEEE802.11i
  standardization) might be a good solution, but
  few platforms supported 802.1x
• Insted we adopted VPN solutions

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Security Adopted in MIAKO.NET

• VPN as authentication and encryption method
• All APs are set up to filter communication except
  VPN protocols
• Client nodes don't have direct access to the
  Internet via APs
• Client nodes establish a PPTP VPN connection to
  the servers in the MIAKO.NET center
• There is no fear of tapping and illegal use by
  any person
• The MS CHAP ver.2 mutual authentication mechanism
  in PPTP removes the risk of man-in-the-middle
  attacks by guiding to some bogus Aps

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VPN of MIAKO.Net
VPN Account of Company
VPN Servers of ISP or Companies
Wireless Access Areas
Access Points
MIAKO.NET Servers
MIAKO.Net Account
12
Free Service and the Business Model

• MIAKO.NET is a joint project by
• The Sustainable Community Center Japan (SCCJ an
  NPO)
• Kyoto University (a national university)
• The Advanced Software Technology and Mechatronics
  Research Institute of Kyoto (ASTEM RI a
  municipal third sector research organization)
• MIAKO.NET is supported by many citizens, some
  universities, local governments and industries
• The initial cost of buying hardwares (APs and
  servers) is supported by governmental research
  funds
• While the running cost of operating servers,
  serving broadband uplink, issuing user accounts
  and all other management issues are supported by
  volunteers

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GION MATSURI (???)Business Model

• Spreading the service area of MIAKO.NET attracts
  people in Kyoto and reinvigorates the local
  economies, and this gives something to the
  volunteers in return
• We have named this model as GION MATSURI (???)
  business model'', after the famous summer
  festival in Kyoto, in joke.

14
Tee room at KITAZA by the KAMO Riv. not only
residents but also tourists enjoy MIAKO.NET
15
Cafe, Temples, Outdoors
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Access Point Owners
Owner of Japanese-style Hotel, RYOKAN
At Kyoto Station
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The Network Design and Operation

• The network operation is done by ASTEM RI, and
  all the servers are located there.
• The access points distributed all over Kyoto are
  connected via either of
• the PPP over Ethernet (PPPoE) tunneling through
  NTT's regional IP network
• Or the VTun IP over TCP tunneling through the
  ordinary Internet.

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Features of Access Points

• ROOT INC's RGW2400 series
• RGW is not a wireless bridge but an intelligent
  wireless router based on NetBSD 1.5.2.
• Many special features are implemented by
  customizing the firmware of RGW routers in Kyoto
  University.
• Protocol based packet filtering,
• Connection to the center server via VTun (IP
  over TCP) tunneling and
• Ipv6 support

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MIAKO.phone

• As a research work by ourselves, we provide the
  MIAKO.phone'' wireless mobile Internet phone
  service experimentally.
• The service is based on the peer-to-peer VoIP
  protocol (NOTASIP)
• Note that in MIAKO.NET all mobile node has its
  own fixed location-independent global IP address!
• Prototype client software works on small Windows
  CE PDAs
• We also serve gateways so that our clients can
  get phone calls from PSTN system with
  ordinallydial-in phone numbers.

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Concluding Remarks

• MIAKO.NET public wireless Internet service
  project.
• the brief overview, the basic policy,
• the network design and operations
• and the MIAKO.phone
• MIAKO.NET provides for all users without any fee
• secure wireless Internet access
• fixed global IPv4
• and experimental IPv6 addresses
• The number of total registered users is now more
  than 4000 (May 2003).
• We continue our research experiments on Internet
  mobile VoIP phones and IPv6 applications.