Operator Orange Jordan and independent software provider SoftAtHome say they have announced the imminent deployment of the world’s first fully prpl-based broadband solution with a home gateway and Wi-Fi repeater powered by prplWare and complementary SoftAtHome products.
The new home gateway and Wi-Fi repeater are powered by prplWare, which includes the prplOS and prplMesh.
For those unfamiliar with prpl, the prpl Foundation says it is a diverse community of service providers, OEMs, silicon vendors, independent software vendors, and open source developers committed to open source software and open APIs to build standardised, carrier-grade customer premises equipment.
The prplOS working group says it is creating an open-source, enterprise-grade software framework designed to power the next generation of Wi-Fi routers and gateways. It explains that prplMesh is an open-source, carrier-grade and certifiable implementation of the Wi-Fi Alliance’s Multi-AP EasyMesh specification.
SoftAtHome, meanwhile, is a software company for the digital home whose products are deployed in over 30 million home networks and millions of mobile devices. The company says its more than 300 employees, mainly software engineers, are committed to innovation and actively contribute to open source communities like prpl.
In the case of Orange Jordan, SoftAtHome says prpl extends the Orange device’s shelf life and brings operators greater independence from hardware constraints to deliver new and innovative services.
Through this project SoftAtHome says it has enabled five critical advantages promoted by the prpl Foundation, including: higher velocity by de-complexifying gateway stack integration onto multiple platforms; a focus on service-driven innovation, enabling proprietary differentiation from a third-party services ecosystem; API harmonisation through collaboration and convergence to help scale up businesses; open source to improve testing and avoid duplication and wasted efforts; and cultivating a community.
Orange Jordan’s new gateway offers fibre connectivity and delivers the advantages of Wi-Fi 6E. For this project, prplWare was extended with several critical operator features such as VoIP, Wi-Fi repeater and API migration, all the while keeping compatibility with the existing infrastructure.
SoftAtHome says prplMesh already brings Wi-Fi management capabilities and hardware abstraction. SoftAtHome has added smart Wi-Fi algorithms, such as Wi-Fi repeater management, packet prioritisation, intelligent channel selection, remote device management, and enhanced security features with SoftAtHome’s WifiON (a Wi-Fi product) running on top of prplWare.
Orange Jordan says it is the first operator within the Orange Group to deploy a prpl-based home gateway solution, a result of Orange Group’s investment in prpl open source solutions.
