|
September 1, 2015
The Real Software Revolution? It’s in the Data Center
August 25, 2015
Is The Tech Market Hitting Middle Age?
August 18, 2015
Building Vertical Platforms for IOT
August 4, 2015
The IOT Monetization Problem
July 28, 2015
The Windows 10 Hardware Argument
July 21, 2015
The Complexity Challenge Drives Shadow IT
July 14, 2015
The Hidden Opportunity of Corporate Smartphones
July 7, 2015
The Analytics of IOT
June 30, 2015
IOT Momentum Starting to Build
June 23, 2015
Breaking the IOT Connection
June 16, 2015
Software is a Service
June 9, 2015
The Challenge of Rising Expectations
June 4, 2015
Insider Extra: Rethinking the Conference Room
June 2, 2015
Win10 + Intel Skylake + Thunderbolt 3 = Interesting PC
May 26, 2015
The IOT Opportunity is Wide Open
May 21, 2015
Insider Extra: The Carrier Challenge for Consumer IOT
May 19, 2015
Maker Movement Drives the Future
May 14, 2015
Insider Extra: The Next Step for Wearables: Health Care
May 12, 2015
Making Sense of IOT
May 5, 2015
A Fresh Look at Wearables
April 30, 2015
Insider Extra: The Amazing HoloLens Leap
April 28, 2015
The Device Dream Team: Large Smartphones and Thin Notebooks
April 23, 2015
Insider Extra: Mobile Sites Should Be Dead
April 21, 2015
Wearables + Connected Cars = IOT Heaven
April 14, 2015
The Future of Wearable Power Is Energy Harvesting
April 7, 2015
Twinning Is Key to Connected Devices
April 2, 2015
Insider Extra: Competing Standard Co-Existence For Wireless Charging and IOT
March 31, 2015
Riding the High-Res Tidal Wave
March 24, 2015
Smart Cars Accelerating Slowly
March 19, 2015
Insider Extra: The Future of Computing is Invisible
March 17, 2015
Smart Home Decade Dilemma
March 10, 2015
Apple Event Surprises
March 3, 2015
Flat Slab Finale?
February 26, 2015
Insider Extra: "Phablet" Impact Continues to Grow
February 24, 2015
Paying for Digital Privacy
February 19, 2015
Insider Extra: The Wire-Free PC
February 17, 2015
Whither Apple?
February 12, 2015
Insider Extra: The Real IOT Opportunity? Industry
February 10, 2015
Business Models For The Internet of Things (IOT)
February 5, 2015
Insider Extra: Is "Mobile Only" The Future?
February 3, 2015
Sexiest New Devices? PCs...
January 29, 2015
Insider Extra: iPhone Next
January 27, 2015
How Will Windows 10 Impact PCs and Tablets?
January 22, 2015
Insider Extra: Hands-On (or Heads-on) With HoloLens
January 20, 2015
Whither Windows 10?
January 15, 2015
Insider Extra: Mobile Security: The Key to a Successful BYOD Implementation
January 13, 2015
Smart Home Situation Likely To Get Worse Before It Gets Better
January 6, 2015
More Tech Predictions for 2015
December 30, 2014
Top 5 Tech Predictions for 2015
|
|
|
|
September 9, 2015
By Bob O'Donnell
In the early days of “smart homes” or “connected homes” or the “smart living room” or whatever phrase you chose to describe the idea of a living space with more than just a simple internet connection for your PC, there was a lot of talk about home gateways.
The theory was that this magical box—the home gateway—was going to be not just the central point of connection for lots of different devices, but also the key to accessing services and many other revenue-generating products.
Instead, we ended up with a bunch of standalone WiFi routers. Now, there’s nothing wrong with WiFi routers and—in reality—you can actually do a lot of the things that were promised for home gateways with a simple router. Connect all your devices? Check. Access TV services, telephony services, etc? Check. It’s just that, well, it really didn’t live up to the hype of the home gateway concept.
Since then, we’ve seen WiFi routers integrated into the cable modems and other boxes that service providers such as telcos, cable companies, and satellite TV providers include as part of their packages. The basic idea behind these combo boxes was/is to reduce the number of non-descript blinking boxes that our homes and apartments were/are becoming overrun with. Of course, if, like me, you find that you want to piece together better Internet service from one provider with better TV service from another, you end up with multiple boxes anyway (and the need to actually turn the WiFi off on one of them to avoid network congestion and other hassles—but I digress…).
To be fair, some of these combo boxes actually come close to the original promise of home gateways—including access to premium TV content and other services—but the world of over-the-top (OTT) delivery of video services from companies like Hulu, Netflix, etc., have changed the landscape and put into question the original need for a home gateway.
At the same time, we’ve seen some big improvements in the quality of WiFi routers, adding support for new technologies like 802.11ac and 802.11ad that offer higher sustained throughput, multiple antennas, and MIMO (multi-input, multi-output), the ability to handle more devices, and so on.
So, the question now becomes, are we seeing the end of home gateways?
While it might be easy to answer yes, I actually think the answer is no. What I think we are seeing is the evolution of home gateways into smarter, more broadly connected devices.
Traditional gateways and routers have frankly been nothing more than connection points and that’s why they never engendered a great deal of enthusiasm among consumers. You find out the name of the network and the password, you enter it into all your devices, and you’re good to go. Whether it was PCs, tablets or smartphones or even some connected appliances, all you seemed to need was a WiFi network for simple, utilitarian connection tasks.
But as great as WiFi is, it’s not the best connection technology for everything, particularly low-power applications. If I want to have access to a smart light bulb from Cree, for example, options like Zigbee are a better (and cheaper) option. Other smart home devices use ZWave and/or some variation of Bluetooth.
As a result, traditional home routers/gateways are starting to incorporate a wider range of radios and, along the way, more intelligence. From home automation-inspired boxes like the Wink hub, Insteon hub or SmartThings hub, to super-charged versions of home routers, like the Qualcomm-powered Google OnHub, we’re seeing a real evolution (and widening) of the types of devices that can now connect to these devices (which everyone seems to be calling hubs…). Plus, with support for technologies like multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO), which Qualcomm’s MU EFX chip enables, and which allows more efficient (i.e., faster) speeds with multiple WiFi devices, these new gateways are getting smarter about working with our existing devices.
In addition to more connectivity options, these gateways are getting sophisticated enough that they require apps to properly configure them. But unlike the often-confusing IP address connectivity requirements of traditional routers, these new home gateways offers simple smartphone-based apps that make the process of using them much easier.
We’re also just beginning to see the rise of new types of devices that could soon incorporate more of these gateway-type functions. For example, Apple’s widely anticipated new AppleTV box is expected to incorporate a range of connectivity options and serve as the company’s hub for its HomeKit home automation developments. In addition, future iterations of living room challengers, such as nVidia’s Shield Android TV, are also likely to incorporate more home gateway style capabilities.
The bottom line is that, while the original vision of what home gateways were supposed to be really never came to pass, we are starting to see an interesting evolution of the concept that could start to serve as the true central connecting point for all the connected devices in a home. Ultimately, that’s what a gateway should be all about.
Here's a link to the original column: https://techpinions.com/home-gateways-extinction-or-evolution/41743
Podcasts
Leveraging more than 10 years of award-winning, professional radio experience, TECHnalysis Research participates in a video-based podcast called Everything Technology.
LEARN MORE |
|
Research Offerings
TECHnalysis Research offers a wide range of research deliverables that you can read about here.
READ MORE |
|