Airties on May 9 announced a significant furtherance of its technology collaboration with RDK Management to streamline operator-grade Wi-Fi EasyMesh deployments. Specifically, global supplier of service provider managed Wi-Fi platforms has contributed its Wi-Fi EasyMesh controller software module as a new RDK-B component for use by the RDK community across broadband gateways/routers.
The RDK open source software platform, deployed on more than 80 million devices worldwide, standardizes core functions and telemetry used in broadband, video, and IoT connected devices. For broadband devices specifically, RDK-B provides a common platform across broadband access technologies including DOCSIS, GPON, and DSL, with functionality such as routing, Wi-Fi, diagnostics, IoT support, and others.
Per a company statement, the core functionality of the new RDK-B component contributed by Airties includes the following elements:
- Onboarding of Wi-Fi EasyMesh agents on gateways/routers and extenders;
- Setting up in-home backhaul connections;
- Propagating fronthaul configuration changes;
- Collecting statistics periodically.
Additionally, the pending enhancement will expose configurations and device state via the common RDK message bus (RBus).
The controller can support any certified Wi-Fi EasyMesh device. Broadband operators can then adopt and license advanced solutions, from Airties or others, to enable controller-initiated steering, cloud-based channel management, cloud-based diagnostics collection, and other capabilities.
“Airties helped solve a genuine need of the RDK community with this software contribution,” remarked Jason Briggs, president and general manager of RDK. “Operators want the benefits of Wi-Fi EasyMesh, while retaining the ability to provide an operator-grade managed Wi-Fi service, and this code contribution helps make that possible. We are very pleased to have a proven Wi-Fi innovator like Airties playing such an active role in our community.”
By further integrating Wi-Fi EasyMesh technology, developed though Wi-Fi Alliance, as a standardized communication layer for Wi-Fi gateways and extenders, the partners note that "operators can spend less time on platform integration efforts across OEMs and chipsets, and more time developing value-added managed Wi-Fi services to their subscribers."
“Since its inception, RDK has dramatically sped up, standardized, and improved core CPE software to benefit operators around the world,” said Philippe Alcaras, CEO of Airties. “Our team has been supporting RDK operators in Europe and North America, while also pioneering efforts in EasyMesh, so we were in a unique position to assist with this key technical alignment and integration. Airties is fully committed to supporting the RDK community, and we’re proud to offer the kind of value-added capabilities atop RDK that today’s operators need to deliver an exceptional managed home Wi-Fi experience.”
Airties said its RDK-B component contribution will enable this kind of operator-grade experience. Vendors and operators across the RDK community are now free to deploy their own products using the contributed Wi-Fi EasyMesh controller. Airties will also maintain the component code contribution and future revisions to support the RDK community.
Airties full portfolio for broadband operators includes the Airties Edge smart Wi-Fi software for gateways; Airties Cloud, a cloud-based management platform and its companion app, Airties Vision; and the Wi-Fi EasyMesh extenders.
Airties was involved in the launch the world’s first ISP deployment of Wi-Fi EasyMesh and notes it is currently working on similar Wi-Fi Easy Mesh deployments with multiple operators around the globe.
Visit www.rdkcentral.com and www.airties.com.
