Google recently announced its OnHub router with TP-LINK, taking a big step toward making the home router an attractive consumer electronic device rather than a blinking black box.
Google’s OnHub can help demystify home connectivity with its sleek design and an interactive app.
It offers easy online software upgrades, just like the smartphone. More importantly, OnHub packs capabilities and connectivity options that make it much more than just a router providing Wi-Fi connectivity. OnHub aims to simplify and improve wireless connectivity in the home.
Qualcomm said this in its blogpost, “Qualcomm Atheros shares that vision, and was excited to work with Google on OnHub.”
It uses the proven, time-tested, high-performance Qualcomm Internet Processor (IPQ) platform and a number of Qualcomm VIVE 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth solutions.
It includes the work-horse IPQ8064, two QCA9880s with 3-stream 11ac Wi-Fi (one each for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz), QCA9882 single-stream 11ac Wi-Fi (for sniffing) and AR3012 for BT 4.0.
For starters, OEMs have to ensure that the platforms they choose provide features and flexibility to customize and run a growing range of networking applications—some of which optimize connection performance, while others enable cloud-based media, home automation or security services.
IPQ packs high-performance custom-built dual-core 1.4 GHz Qualcomm Krait CPUs, offering large amounts of processing horsepower even under full capacity utilization, as well as a Network Subsystem engine to offload routine networking functions from the main CPU. For example, OnHub takes advantage of this processing power to prioritize devices and maximize bandwidth.
The two QCA9880s with VIVE 11ac technology, designed to enable speeds of up to 1.9Gbps by supporting both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. The architecture also enabled Google to build multiple smart antennas into OnHub, designed to provide reliable Wi-Fi coverage in more directions throughout the home.
Google has equipped the OnHub to speak multiple wireless languages, from Wi-Fi to Bluetooth to 802.15.4.
