The Control Panel component of WiFi-CPA is a web based interface that allows Wireless HotSpot operators to manage their wireless network in a comprehensive manner.

The Control Panel provides a management interface that permits Wireless HotSpot operators control and visibility into their entire wireless network. In addition to a wide set of user-management & billing related features, it also provides the ability to monitor and track usage/sales performance across multiple wireless HotSpot locations and in varying time intervals. The Control Panel acts as the command and control system of your Wireless HotSpot locations.

* Generate and Print Voucher Codes & User Accounts
* User management
* Monitoring the usage across multiple locations
* Sales Tracking
* Activity status of HotSpot locations
* Add additional HotSpot locations instantly
* WiFi-CPA Firmware (can be obtained from downloads section)

Usage Monitoring
The HotSpot software allows the HotSpot operator to monitor the usage rate across multiple wireless HotSpot locations. In addition to the ability to view the usage statistics for various time horizons (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly). It also provides detailed graphical charts illustrating the usage.

Sales Tracking
The ability to track daily, weekly, monthly and yearly sales for a single wireless HotSpot location or across multiple locations is a key feature of the HotSpot solution . This functionality allows the wireless HotSpot operators to obtain a clear view of the actual performance of the various HotSpot locations in near real time.
It also provides statistical and graphical illustration of the historical sales in various intervals of time.

AccessPoint/Node Status
The Control Panel continuously monitors all the wireless HotSpot locations and displays the status of each of these locations (online, off-line, in use). It also sends email or pager alerts (SMS) to the wireless HotSpot operator if any of the locations are down. This critical functionality ensures that the wireless HotSpot network runs without any disruptions. Remotely enable and disable entire HotSpot networks or individual HotSpots.

Add New Locations
One of the unique features of WiFi-CPA is that it allows the wireless HotSpot operator to instantly add additional new locations to the wireless network. This allows the WISP or the HotSpot operator to expand his wireless network in a rapid manner.

Multiple Currency Support
This feature of the control panel allows operators in different countries to specify the usage fee in their local currency.

Export/Import data in PDF & Excel
The control panel allows the operators to export user and usage data in PDF and Excel formats.
Import user account in .csv formats.

Add Time
The control panel allows the operators to add time to existing Time Codes and User Accounts. In addition, the users can add time by using the online "Manage Account" from the login page..

Bandwidth Management
This feature of the control panel allows the operator of the HotSpot to specify usage fees based on various bandwidth plans. The bandwidth plans include rate plans, cumulative data plans (daily and monthly) and plans that are a combination of rate & cumulative.

PayPal
WiFi-CPA allows Wireless HotSpot operators to accept payments directly to their PayPal or merchant account.

Free Usage Scenario
This feature is suited for HotSpot operators who provide a free service. Create Packages with zero cost, or use "Express" Login to create a click-and-go login process.

Device Authentication
This feature allows devices such as IP phones, etc. to access your HotSpot network using their MAC address.

Location based Advertisements
This optional feature allows the operator to display local ads in the login page. For example, a hotel could display the ads of the restaurants nearby thereby generating additional cash flow. It also allows the operator to define the priority of the ads, the expiry date, status, CPC (Cost per View) and more.

Extensive Customization
We provide extensive customization capabilities. This allows the HotSpot operators to accommodate their unique business requirements with respect to user login process, payment gateway types, language, login page and more.

Minimum Hardware Requirements
The following outlines the minimum hardware requirements for WiFi-CPA Enterprise Server. Note the minimum requirements are not suitable for all environments, see the Hardware Sizing for information.

CPU - 100 MHz Pentium
RAM - 128 MB

Requirements specific to individual platforms follow.

Hard drive installation
CD-ROM for initial installation
1 GB hard drive

Embedded
128 MB Compact Flash card
Serial port for console

Hardware Sizing Guidance
When sizing hardware for use with WiFi-CPA Enterprise Server, two main factors need to be considered.

Throughput required
Features that will be used

Captive Portal - While the primary concern is typically throughput, environments with hundreds of simultaneous captive portal users (of which there are many) will require slightly more CPU power than recommended above.

Large state tables - State table entries require about 1 KB of RAM each. The default state table, when full at 10,000 entries, takes up a little less than 10 MB RAM. For large environments requiring state tables with hundreds of thousands of connections, ensure adequate RAM is available.

Throughput Considerations

If you require less than 10 Mbps of throughput, you can get by with the minimum requirements. For higher throughput requirements we recommend following these guidelines, based on our extensive testing and deployment experience. These guidelines offer a bit of breathing room because you never want to run your hardware to its full capacity.
10-20 Mbps - No less than 266 MHz CPU
21-50 Mbps - No less than 500 MHz CPU
51-200 Mbps - No less than 1.0 GHz CPU
201-500 Mbps - server class hardware with PCI-X or PCI-e network adapters, or newer desktop hardware with PCI-e network adapters. No less than 2.0 GHz CPU.
501+ Mbps - server class hardware with PCI-X or PCI-e network adapters. No less than 3.0 GHz CPU.