The development process for broadband customer premises equipment (CPE) has been streamlined and accelerated thanks to a new ‘Fast-Track’ program devised by the prpl Foundation.
The new process aligns telecommunications service providers, as well as chipset manufacturers and CPE vendors, for the creation of new consumer and business-centric CPE, shortening time to market and fostering greater open-source innovation across the wireless and wireline broadband access technology industry.
Track’ program, chipset manufacturers and CPE manufacturers are empowered to contribute to a common software ecosystem, from which products can be developed and integrated quickly. Once evaluated and validated as part of prpl’s ongoing prplWare open-source software stack, the certified chipsets devised through the ‘Fast-Track’ program establish a strong Quality-of-Experience (QoE) for applications such as gaming where minimal lagging and low-latency connectivity is essential. The program enables, for instance, greater packet acceleration for security and Wi-Fi sensing applications, speeding up innovations required for accurate event detection, home security, fire, and automation, alongside services that enable such programs associated with residential and business functions.
Two cornerstones of the prpl Foundation have already signed up for the ‘Fast-Track’ program. Both MaxLinear and Qualcomm have contributed extensive resources and carrier-grade Wi-Fi 6E CPE to the development community and their involvement in the program leads to both organization’s chipsets to be considered the reference platforms for the prpl Foundation going forward. By the end of the third quarter of 2023, the first ever open-source Wi-Fi 7 based hardware platform based on prplWare will be available to the operator and service provider community for integration with future CPE.
As part of the ‘Fast-Track’ program, software developers will also design new features for prplOS - the foundational operating system component of the prplWare platform - alongside specific software components for prplMesh based on the new carrier-grade CPE. The prplMesh team will use the CPE for their development cycles, with the goal to complete R5 certification by the end of the year. The new Service Provider and Operator carrier-grade CPE will be utilized in the prpl Foundation’s Continuous Integration (CI) platform for the verification, testing and validation of key software component features.
Silicon vendors can participate in the ‘Fast-Track’ program through prpl Foundation membership. Additional chipset vendors are welcomed to join the ongoing initiative over the coming months and years as new chipsets supporting Wi-Fi 7 and future innovations evolve in the marketplace.
prpl Foundation President Len Dauphinee
We are delighted to announce the creation of our game changing ‘Fast-Track’ program As part of the process, chipset and CPE vendors will adapt their platform to run prplWare efficiently. The ‘Fast-Track’ program provides the tools required to accelerate market launches, with CPE receiving the highest recognition from our industry-leading organization. We anticipate that the program will accelerate the way chipsets are developed going forward
Qualcomm Senior Director of Technology Wayne Daniel
Standardization of software platforms is essential for successful developments, but this can only be achieved so long as the service providers and system operator community works together efficiently The ‘Fast-Track’ program designed by the prpl Foundation will offer long-term support to all involved parties and provide a greater framework and opportunity for technological advancement. It was an easy decision for Qualcomm to get involved, and we’re excited to see what the future holds
