Celeno Communications, a company that specializes in video-optimized WiFi chip for set-tops, gateways and routers, is hitting on a hot area with the launch of the WiFi Experience Manager, a product that enables original equipment manufacturers and service providers to manage their wireless home networks.
Celeno said it’s offering it through an API that enables partners to develop their own branded mobile apps to work alongside WiFi access points powered by its OptimizAIR2.0 technology.
As an add-on to OptimizAIR 2.0, the experience manager consists of an app server integrated in the WiFi gateway or router, as well as a mobile application for both Android- and iOS-powered devices. Among the management features, the mobile app lets users control the prioritization and WiFi capacity allocation of different streams and devices in the home via their tablets or smartphones.
In that scenario, a user, for example, could guarantee capacity for different streams and apps such as video and gaming and ensure that guests don’t compromise their own private devices, the company said.
Edimax recently integrated this technology in their new high-end 802.11ac home routers, which uses Celeno’s CL2200 802.11ac WiFi chip.
“Celeno’s new Wi-Fi Experience Manager is a unique solution, enabling Service Providers and OEMs to offer their customers an intuitive tool to self-manage their Wi-Fi over-the-air experience for the first time,” said Gilad Rozen, CEO of Celeno.
The new platform “addresses both the end user demand for a superlative Wi-Fi experience, and the business needs of Service Providers who seek to empower their subscribers to control their own home network, and minimize their own operational expenditures, based on simple self-operated tools which complement the Service Providers’ CPE management systems,” Celeno CEO Gilad Rozen said, in a statement.
Celeno, which counts Broadcom and Quantenna Communications among its competitors, is backed by Cisco Systems, Greylock IL Partners, Liberty Global, Pitango Venture Capital and Vintage Investment Partners. Among that group, Liberty Global is using Celeno chips in boxes that power its new IP-capable, next-gen Horizon video platform.
Adding management smarts to home networks is a segment of the service provider market that’s heating up. On Monday, Comcast confirmed that it had acquired PowerCloud Systems, a provider of technologies that manage WiFi and other networking services. Comcast plans to integrate PowerCloud’s management technology into its high-speed Internet platform.
