Plume Launches Ultra-Compact Cloud Managed Wi-Fi Pod Reference Designs Using Qualcomm Technologies’ Chipsets
BERLIN–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today at Broadband World Forum 2017, Plume Design, Inc. has announced two form-factor ready, turn-key, distributed Wi-Fi access point reference designs. This family of fully interoperable designs deliver extensive coverage, fast speeds, cloud management and unparalleled intelligence.
Cost, size, and power optimized, and selected for mass deployment by multiple tier-1 carriers including Comcast, these solutions represent the most advanced carrier grade whole-home Wi-Fi offering for all sizes and types of homes. Interoperability testing and qualification with several new and existing carrier gateway designs have been completed. The two form-factor-ready reference designs combine 2-stream and 4-stream 802.11ac Wi-Fi technology and network processing into a highly integrated system-on-chip (SoC) from Qualcomm Technologies, include circuit board layouts, and thermal and RF designs to yield ultra-compact Pods (less than 90 cm3) that can be plugged directly into any wall outlet.
The Plume Wi-Fi Pod reference designs offer Qualcomm Technologies’ high performance 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi radios available in dual or tri-band configurations, coupled with Plume’s Auto-Channel-Hop technology to maximize network capacity, reliability, and resiliency by enabling any radio to be used for simultaneous backhaul and client connections.
“Carriers are moving fast with managed whole-home Wi-Fi solutions,” said Adam Hotchkiss, co-founder and product lead at Plume. “Together with partners like Qualcomm Technologies, we are pleased to offer turn-key solutions to the carrier ecosystem that are not only the highest performance, but also deliverable very quickly. The carrier whole-home Wi-Fi tsunami is here,” concluded Hotchkiss.
The reference designs come with the Plume Agent pre-integrated, and seamlessly interoperate with any other Wi-Fi equipped hardware which hosts a Plume Agent – including carrier broadband gateways, video-over-Wi-Fi hardware, IoT hubs, and consumer electronics – to form a unified, managed and optimized network centrally controlled by the Plume Adaptive WiFi™ Cloud.
“Qualcomm Technologies is excited to be working with Plume to expand the mesh networking experience to the carrier market and its customers,” said Irvind Ghai, vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., “A form factor ready, turn-key reference design with pre-integrated and tested management connections to the cloud is the fastest way for our ODM and OEM partners to address the rapidly growing cloud enabled mesh networking market with carriers.”
Carrier scale Plume Adaptive WiFi™ cloud-driven functions available for the reference designs include dynamic Wi-Fi interference mitigation with real-time and historical triggers, joint optimizations across multiple apartments in Multi-Dwelling-Unit (MDU) environments, tightly coupled band and client steering across the carrier gateway Wi-Fi and distributed APs, sticky client disassociation, non-Wi-Fi interference avoidance, dynamic load balancing, and predictive, preemptive, and client specific optimizations based on device behavior and historical patterns.
The turn-key designs are available to the Original Design Manufacturers (ODMs) and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) under a manufacturing and distribution license from Plume. Attractive industrial designs are also available as part of the complete solution set.
Sagemcom Broadband SAS, a licensee of the reference designs, and manufacturer and supplier of Pods is currently mass manufacturing and shipping Pods to multiple large carriers.
Cambridge Industries Group (CIG) of Shanghai, China, a licensee of the reference designs, and manufacturer and supplier of Pods expects to ship Pods in volume starting in the first quarter of 2018.
A live demonstration of the solution is taking place at the Qualcomm booth at the Broadband World Forum 2017 in Berlin.
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