The race to rethink your aging Internet router is heating up.
Silicon Valley startup Plume is looking to disrupt the much-maligned Wi-Fi router by splitting it in two — and tossing half of it into the cloud.
The idea is to replace the outdated chips used by traditional routers with the superior and cheaper capabilities of cloud computing. The result is a simpler piece of hardware it calls a “pod.”
Plume’s tiny, chipless, geometric-shaped pods plug directly into wall sockets throughout a home. Instead of entirely replacing the basic router from your Internet provider, they dramatically enhance the quality of its signal throughout the house.
Retaining the radio functions of a traditional router, Plume’s cloud-controlled pods work together to create what Plume co-founder and CEO Fahri Diner calls “adaptive Wi-Fi.”
“The pods will dynamically respond to interference — if a neighbor starts streaming 4K video, we can move you to different channel,” Diner says. “If you’re
in the living room watching 4K, we can shift some bandwidth to other parts of your home for other family members.”
The Palo Alto, Calif., company claims that a set of six of its pods will handle a three-bedroom house better than rival, high-end Wi-Fi systems such as the recently launched Eero, which sells sets of three units for $499. The pods are available Thursday for pre-order at $39 a pop and will ship in the fall.
The Wi-Fi wars are heating up as the fast-growing “Internet of Things” — smart thermostats, security cameras, speakers and door locks — are increasingly clogging home networks.
Traditional routers like NetGear and Apple’s Airport Extreme must extend their signals using devices known as repeaters and extenders in a “hub-and-spoke” configuration.
This spring, Eero, another Silicon Valley startup, launched sets of routers in a “mesh” style configuration that yields multiple, direct access points for the signal.
“Neither of these approaches can handle the dynamic, varying, independent nature of Wi-Fi,” according to Diner, who previously founded Qtera, a fiber-optic networking pioneer that sold to Nortel for $3.25 billion.
“Conditions are never constant. Loads come on and off, interference comes from without and within the home,” he said.
While superior to traditional router setups, Diner says “mesh” style configurations like Eero’s are susceptible to placing too many devices at one place on the Wi-Fi spectrum, resulting in choked speeds.
The problem can crop up whether devices are in a so-called “5G” band — known for high speed at shorter distances — or a 2.4G band that’s slower but covers a wider area.
By constantly adjusting signals to devices across these bands, Plume says its dynamic networks can accommodate mobile phones and tablets being carried around the house, keeping signals strong and consistent from room to room.
The pods can also detect which kind of device is being used, and what kind of signal it prefers.
“An iPhone 6 behaves differently from a Samsung Galaxy 6,” Diner notes.
Plume systems, which can be monitored and controlled with a mobile app, likewise can learn the routines of their owners. For example, they can free up living-room bandwidth on Sunday night for weekly Netflix binge parties.
“It’ll be faster, more resilient and more reliable in every room of your house,” Diner said.
