DigiCert, Inc., the world’s leading provider of TLS/SSL, IoT and other PKI solutions, today announced that it has been selected by the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) to provide global PKI-based security services for TIP’s OpenWiFi platform. The DigiCert IoT Device Manager, built on the DigiCert ONE platform, will provide highly scalable, fully automated digital certificate management to advance OpenWiFi’s goal of expanding next-generation Wi-Fi accessibility.

“We are excited to be working collaboratively with TIP to enable zero-touch provisioning for the OpenWiFi platform and support its goals of improving Wi-Fi whitebox solutions for small and medium-sized businesses,” said DigiCert Global Director of IoT Security Kris Singh. “DigiCert’s focus on providing the best global PKI technology with rich automation and high scalability to address any challenge makes us the leading choice across many industry-driven communities, including telecom. We look forward to collaborating with the many great technologists associated with TIP.”

“TIP’s rollout of a secure RootCA infrastructure is a key enabler of true disaggregation and multi-vendor support for OpenWiFi. DigiCert and its DigiCert ONE platform offer the right mix of services, infrastructure and experience to support TIP’s global rollout of PKI for OpenWiFi Access Points that have gone through TIP’s Test & Validation process,” said David Hutton, Chief Engineer, Telecom Infra Project.

IoT Device Manager uses container-based, cloud-native architecture to address the security needs of the TIP OpenWiFi Project. It also provides rapid deployment within minutes, not months, for on-premises, cloud and DigiCert-hosted PKI services. IoT Device Manager offers rich automation, deep integration capabilities and the ability to manage digital certificates at any scale. It also allows users to track metadata on their devices for end-to-end device lifecycle management tied to device identity, authentication, data encryption and device integrity.

The goal of the OpenWiFi platform is to increase the availability of next-generation Wi-Fi networks and to enhance innovation by encouraging open-source community development of Wi-Fi solutions.

TIP OpenWiFi is a disaggregated Wi-Fi software system, offered as free open source that includes both a cloud controller SDK and Access Point (AP) firmware, capable of running on a rich variety of indoor and outdoor AP hardware, designed and validated by TIP to work seamlessly together.

OpenWiFi includes Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) based on PKI over the public internet, a key requirement for securely authenticating Wi-Fi Access Points to Cloud Controllers. TIP’s disaggregated PKI approach enables secure software updating, remote reconfiguration and repointing of access points between different cloud services. This combined TIP–DigiCert solution benefits consumers, equipment vendors and service providers alike.

The OpenWiFi initiative, driven by a global base of operators, managed service providers, vendors and industry organizations, makes it easy for vendors to optimize or reduce their R&D spend, specialize in their innovation and offer a new breed of interoperable enterprise-grade Wi-Fi solutions across cloud services and cutting-edge hardware access points. This in turn offers service providers a greater choice of competitive suppliers from across the globe to choose from. This new ecosystem-driven initiative from TIP will enable the innovation of next-generation Wi-Fi networks.