About JANET Roaming

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JANET Roaming

JANET Roaming is part of the eduroam confederation (www.eduroam.org) in which the UK, 32 other European countries, Canada and Australia, China (including Hong Kong) and Taiwan through APAN have collaborated to provide international RADIUS proxy authentication facilities.

How Roaming Works

  • 802.1X

http://www.terena.nl/activities/tf-mobility/deliverables/delD/DelD_v1.2-f.pdf

Web Redirect

http://www.terena.nl/activities/tf-mobility/deliverables/delF/DelF-f.pdf

 

An Overview of the JANET Roaming Service

Introduction

The JANET Roaming Service allows visitors from any participating organisation to use credentials provided by their Home organisation to gain network access at a Visited organisation. It facilitates a range of network access scenarios, ranging from casual visits and meetings to large conferences and classroom sharing. This document provides an overview of the most important participation requirements.

A participating organisation may act as either a Home organisation or as a Visited organisation or both, at their discretion.

General Requirements for both Home and Visited Organisations

  • Deploy an Organisational RADIUS proxy server (ORPS)

Each participant must deploy an ORPS. The ORPS is a RADIUS server that provides the interface between participants' RADIUS systems and the National RADIUS proxy servers (NRPS) operated by JANET(UK). Two or more ORPS may be deployed to improve service resilience.

Home Organisation Requirements

  • Configure the RADIUS server to authenticate their own users with the PAP and EAP protocols

Home organisations must deploy a RADIUS server to authenticate their own users using PAP and any suitable EAP method (such as TLS, TTLS or PEAP). The RADIUS authentication server may also act as the ORPS.

Visited Organisation Requirements

  • Configure the RADIUS server and implement authentication mechanism for visitors

JANET Roaming specifies two service tiers: JRS2 and JRS3. Participants that choose to be a Visited organisations must implement one of these tiers, at their discretion. The differences between the tiers are shown in Table 1 below.

Service tier Authentication method NAT IPv6 WPA WPA2 SSIDs
JRS2 IEEE 802.1x May May Must May eduroam
JRS3 IEEE 802.1x Must not Must Should Must eduroam

Table 1 - Tier requirements for Visited organisations.

  • Permit the forwarding of certain IP protocols

Visited organisations must permit egress and established forwarding of the protocols listed in Table 2 below.

Description Protocols Description Protocols Description Protocols
IPv6 tunnel broker UDP/3653 & TCP/3653 HTTPS TCP/443 POP3S TCP/993
IPSec NAT traversal UDP/4500 LDAP TCP/389 Passive (S)FTP TCP/21
Cisco IPSec NAT traversal UDP10000 & TCP/10000 LDAPS TCP/636 SMTPS TCP/465
PPTP IP 47 & TCP/1723 IMSP TCP/406 Message submission TCP/587
OpenVPN TCP/5000 IMAP4 TCP/143 RDP TCP/3389
NTP UDP/123 IMAP3 TCP/220 VNC TCP/5000
SSH TCP/22 IMAPS TCP/993 Citrix TCP/1495
HTTP TCP/80 POP TCP/110 AFS UDP/7000-UDP/7007

Table 2 - Minimum requirements for egress and established forwarding of protocols.

Using JANET Roaming

JANET Roaming can be used from users' own laptops over wireless networks or via hardwired desktop PCs and MACs (for example in IT suites or libraries) that have been suitably configured. JANET Roaming can be used at Visited organisations and in many cases at Home organisations too.

End-users at customer organisations which have deployed JANET Roaming should consult their IT Support dept. for one-off setup of their laptops prior to travelling to Visited sites providing the JANET Roaming service. They will also be able to learn what facilities at the Home Organisation site are offered for remote access from Visited Organisations, (eg. e-mail, VPN). This information should be available on the JANET Roaming pages of the Home Organisation web site, which can be found on the Participating Organisations Map by hovering over your city blob.

Users MUST also check the Participating Organisations Map to check that their laptop setup is compatible with the authentication method offered by the Visited Organisation and to learn the SSID which they must input into their laptop.

Once at Visited JANET Roaming sites, end-users will be able to log on to the guest network by using their unique credentials (the same for all sites they might visit) - these are their own home organisation username and the organisation realm name in the form: username@foo.ac.uk. (Nb. this is NOT necessarily the user's e-mail address). Users will be able to do this at JANET Roaming enabled hotspots at the Visited sites, which should be marked "JANET Roaming", "JRS" or "eduroam".

Users experiencing any technical problems with the Roaming service or with remote access facilities provided by their Home Organisation, should in the first instance consult their Home Organisation IT Support dept.

Also see JANET Roaming Service User Guide and JANET Roaming Service Connection Guide.

UNINETT website "How to connect to an eduroam site" - useful configuration guide and technical information for users

Implementing JANET Roaming

Follow link for a step-by-step guide to implementing JANET Roaming - Implementing JANET Roaming Roadmap.

And of course you could print the following manuals to have by your side:

JANET Roaming Deployment Guide Adobe Acrobat logo (pdf)

JANET Roaming Technical Specification (doc) Adobe Acrobat logo (pdf)

Inter-NREN Roaming Infrastructure & Service Support Cookbook 2nd Edition (pdf) Adobe Acrobat logo (pdf)

and probably the 802.1x Implementation guide and Sussex FreeRADIUS 2 case study too!

 

Update to the JRS Technical Specification v1.1 February 2009

The most significant changes to the requirements have been italicised.

Changes from version 1.0:

  • Substituted all occurrences of ‘UKERNA’ with ‘JANET(UK)’, reflecting the change of trading name of The JNT Association.
  • Set a date when the revised document takes effect.
  • Capitalised all RFC 2119 keywords to conform to convention.
  • Substituted the ‘rationale’ headings with ‘discussion’ throughout the document, reflecting the purpose of these sections.
  • Substituted instances of ‘VLAN’ with ‘network’ throughout the document to avoid the spurious differentiation between ‘logical’ and ‘physical’ networks.
  • Corrected the participation requirements in section 2.1 (‘Participation’) to permit participation from organisations that choose not to deploy a visitor network. This was the original intention of the previous version of the document.
  • Moved the discussion on logging from section 2.4 (‘RADIUS Hosts’) to section 2.3 (‘Logging’) to aid clarity.
  • Removed mandatory support for ICMP responses from section 2.3 (‘RADIUS Hosts’) because some RADIUS implementations do not support this, and added the JANET Roaming Support Server as a possible source of ICMP requests.
  • Mandated a list of RADIUS attributes that must be forwarded by an ORPS in section 2.4 (‘RADIUS hosts’).
  • Added a sub-section 2.5 ('JANET Roaming Website') to the 'Common Requirements' section; this has the effect of requiring all organisations (and not only Visited organisations) to publish a JANET Roaming website.
  • Added requirements in section 2.5 (‘JANET Roaming Website’) relevant to all organisations to link to the JANET Roaming Policy and eduroam website.
  • Added a brief discussion concerning the use of anonymous and pseudonymous user names in section 3.1 (‘User Names’).
  • Removed section 3.3 PAP Authentication and the recommendation that organisations configure their RADIUS server to authenticate PAP (Password Authentication Protocol); this being unnecessary since the use of web redirect is no longer permitted by this specification. We do however recommend that organisations retain PAP authentication for the Test account to faciliate monitoring and troubleshooting.
  • Changed the EAP type specification for the test account from being a requirement to being a recommendation, section 3.4 (‘Test Account’). Removed requirement for test account to be PAP authenticable and also recommended the use of either PEAP or TTLS.
  • Renumbered section 3.6 (‘User security awareness’) to 3.5 and removed the discussion of web redirect this section; this information is redundant as the use of web redirect is no longer permitted by this specification.
  • Removed the reference to a ‘local AUP’ in section 4.1 as an applicable document may not necessarily exist.
  • Added a clarification in section 4.1 concerning the segregation of networks and visitors using VLANs or other techniques.
  • Added a requirement in section 4.2 to explicitly prohibit the forwarding of requests from NASs other than those that conform to this specification.
  • Added a requirement in section 4.2 to prohibit forwarding of realmless NAIs.
  • Changed the heading of section 4.3 (‘NAS Requirements’) from ‘NAS General Requirements’.
  • Clarified the appropriate uses of local authorisation or admission control in section 4.3.
  • Removed section 4.10 (‘802.1X NASs’) and moved its requirements into section 4.3 (‘NAS Requirements’); 802.1X NASs are the only type permitted by this specification, as the use of web redirect is no longer permitted by this specification.
  • Changed the heading of section 4.4 (‘Securing Host Network Configuration’) from ‘Securing Host Bootstrapping’ to assist understanding.
  • Removed the discussion of web redirect from section 4.4 (‘Securing Host Network Configuration’); this information is redundant as the use of web redirect is no longer permitted by this specification.
  • Changed the heading of section 4.5 (‘IP Forwarding’) from ‘IP Filtering’ to assist understanding.
  • Added the Network Time Protocol to the list of mandatory forwarded protocols in section 4.5 (‘IP Forwarding).
  • Added AFS to the list of mandatory forwarded protocols in section 4.5 ('IP Forwarding').
  • Added port udp/10000 to the Cisco IPSec NAT traversal protocol’s policy in section 4.5 (‘IP filtering’). This corrects its accidental omission in the previous version of this policy.
  • Updated the OpenVPN protocol’s policy in section 4.5 (‘IP Filtering’) to reflect the change in this protocol’s default port and transport.
  • Added a recommendation in section 4.7 (‘JANET Roaming Website’) relevant to Visited organisations to publish the IP forwarding policies imposed on the visitor network on the JANET Roaming website.
  • Moved some of the requirements that cover common requirements in section 4.7 ('JANET Roaming Website') to the new section 2.5 ('JANET Roaming Website').
  • Changed the heading of section 4.8 (‘SSID’) from ‘SSIDs’ reflecting this specification’s use of a single SSID.
  • Updated section 4.8 (‘SSIDs’) to require a single SSID for all tiers.
  • Removed section 4.9 (‘WRD NASs’) as the use of web redirect is no longer permitted by this specification.
  • Removed section 4.12 (‘WEP’) as the use of WEP is no longer permitted by this specification.
  • Mandated the use of TKIP in section 4.10 (‘WPA’).
  • Removed discussion of WEP in section 4.10 (‘WPA’) as WEP is no longer permitted by this specification.
  • Mandated the use of CCMP (AES) in section 4.11 (‘WPA2’).
  • Removed discussion of WEP in section 4.11 (‘WPA2’) as WEP is no longer permitted by this specification.

 

Any problems, comments or suggestions regarding this page, please e-mail the JANET Roaming service manager.