Is there a chance of open systems? Opportunities and challenges for polar routing

The smart router has grown to the present, and it's time to rethink the direction. is a simple router "intelligent"? Or do you continue to plough as a family entrance? These two smart router concepts arise when the hot point is being replaced by new gameplay.

One is to connect the Home Intelligent Center, playing smart home abacus is based on this calculation, Baidu, Millet, Huawei, Beijing-east, Haier and a large number of internet and home appliances companies flocking. The second is to do the open platform, intelligent routing of the pilot pole routing is recently doing this effort. Opening its Hiwifi OS to third-party vendors, I describe it as a routing market for Android. and millet in the "open" idea on their own routines in the walk.

How does a router open? Is it reliable? For this reason, I specialize in the founder CEO Wang Zhuyun, but also with the millet router Tang Yu, such as several routing peers to explore, open behind is the route to do the router to lead the Big Brother's ambition, but also face three difficulties, see Wang Zhuyun How to solve:

What is an open platform for pole routing

In simple terms, the open platform of the pole route has these parts: 1, the hardware platform of MTK chip mainly. 2. The Hiwifi OS is open to use in the polar routing system. 3, the route created by the Pole Route ecology (by mobile phone APP, cloud storage, plug-in store, system several parts).

Why open the system to other vendors? Wang Zhuyun think is now everyone think the router is the future of smart home core, so all to do, even like the second echelon of the Storm audio and video. But the participants came in and found that the router was a "big pit". WiFi performance optimization, supply chain, product iterations, are not easy to imagine. At this time, the role of the polar route to play is, through its system, so that these players can quickly enter the smart router market, and its harvest is in the cloud platform, plug-in stores, such as the entire ecological prosperity.

This is the ambition of the polar route, whether it can be, the following three questions are very critical:

System or Product: Two kinds of open game

At the same time I chatted with Tang Yu about the topic of "router openness", which led to two definitions of openness. Millet is also trying to do an open platform, but the difference is that millet want to be open to its router products, the purpose is to access the application/plug-in developers and smart home research peripherals. The opening of the pole route is at the system level.

Wang Zhuyun this way to see millet thinking, "My point is still the router itself, open to the third party." Millet It is around its own ecosystem to do, including the Internet of Things, smart home, as well as hand ring, sockets and other products, which will make its partners more difficult. ”

and Tang Yu that the most reliable open, is the product into a platform, in a large and stable platform to do open, so as to attract developers, Miwifi Open SDK has done level III, is still practicing internal strength.

Closer scrutiny, the more already very clear, the opening of Millet is based on its product ecology and users and channels, the pole route is from a large and wide router market, it is not inconsistent, but there will be intersection.

Can you prosper like Android?

Android is Linux at the bottom, and Google is opening Android to dominate nearly 90% smartphone markets around the world. The Hiwifi of the pole route is based on the open source platform of OpenWrt, Linux at the bottom, can it become a dark horse in the router market like Android in the mobile market? My doubt is that compared to Android on Linux, the Hiwifi OS based on OpenWrt is always separated by a layer, is it feasible? Would it be like Miui to Android? Are there any problems with escalation iterations?

Wang Zhuyun that this is different from the MIUI logic, MIUI is mainly modified in the interface layer, Hiwifi in the drive layer, which is a bit. At the same time, polar routing makes a set of app permissions framework, rather than simply opening root permissions. Wang Zhuyun says it also draws on some Android mechanisms, mainly in GUI image interfaces. But unlike Android, there is a lot of research done on DPI filtering control, QS bandwidth throttling, and data-tier protocols.

"Linux is a beautiful system, but it is like a piece of original stone jade, it needs to be carved." "This is what they do," said Wang Zhuyun, openwrt although it can drive the route, but in the cloud database, plug-in service mechanism is blank.

So see the pole route is used only a shell of OpenWrt, the core is in the Linux system to draw the scattered leaves developed into a complete intelligent router system, with the open platform, the next question is who to use?

Third, Hiwifi OS problem: Who to use?

Tang Yu, the head of the millet router, chatted about the opening of the intelligent router platform, and he thought it was good to open the system to other factories, but the first problem to be solved was why other manufacturers used it. At present, may join its Hiwifi OS to play together there will be two players, on the one hand is not the first line of the manufacturers, rapid intelligence; On the other hand, try smart home or other business-oriented companies, do not put most of their energy on the route, you can walk this shortcut, The commercial WiFi project that the pole route throws is an example. But the traditional router's big player still has unwilling to use "the younger brother" the OS mentality temporarily.

After the pole route opens the open platform system, the present cooperation party only then Shenzhen must jointly one. How to get the router's TOP10 vendors to use your system? To me this question, Wang Zhuyun thinks needs the patience, later will have more people to join slowly. "After all, being a start-up company is a time when people will not believe you." "he said. Now we have completed the 0~1 breakthrough, followed by the 1~10 breakthrough.

"Let's put it another way, for example, why do TOP10 companies in the routing market use yours?" Give a reason. I went on to ask, "very simply, the system they are selling now is dead." Wang Zhuyun immediately replied, he believes that the current router manufacturers either wait and see and choose to cooperate with them, or try to do some intelligent, not enough to achieve, and then to cooperate with them, take 1~2 products. So I succeeded, he added.

Conclusion: The new stage of the router

Through the Wang Zhuyun of the same pole route, and the discussion with Tang Yu, the point that I feel is very deep. The router is an open platform, no longer a generalities vision, is the focus of the current reality.

As discussed above, is it open at the system level or on your own hardware platform? This is the current two big direction. The polar route is now a robust and not slow attitude to really do a good job of the system. Millet is based on a larger intelligent home and the router for the extension of the entrance of the larger intelligent market.

However, in general, the opening process of the polar route, from qualitative change to quantitative change, requires a long-term but vigorous advance, or as previously discussed, if you can shake the TOP10 router player's choice, this is the opening line of the success of the moment.