What Is A VBN Gateway?
Virtually any Internet-based Ethernet LAN can become a visitor-based network by adding a device generally termed a "VBN gateway". The function of a VBN Gateway is to provide a necessary layer of management between public users and the Internet router to enable a plug and play connection for visitors. Typical VBN Gateway provide services and support for billing and management application integrations, such as PMS systems (in hotels), credit-card billing interfaces, or Radius/LDAP servers for central authentication models.
A common criteria for VBN gateways is they allow users to connect and access the available network services with little or no configuration on their local machines (specifically modification to their IP address). In order to accomplish this a layer 2 (See: OSI_model#Layer_2:_data_link_layer) connection is required between the user and the VBN gateway. Aside from the layer 2 (or bridged) network requirement, there are really no other restrictions for using a VBN gateway to enable a network. As such, Ethernet, 802.11x, CMTS, and xDSL are all acceptable mediums for distributing networks to use with VBN Gateways.
In the simplest form a VBN gateway is a hardware device with a minimum of two network connections. One network connection is considered the subscriber network, and the other the uplink to the Internet. The majority of VBN gateways on the market today all use Ethernet interfaces for their connection, but as stated above, any layer 2 connection is acceptable for this.
Read more about this topic: Visitor Based Network