Thought Leadership: The Future of Home Gateways

Nadav Liebermann|

Thought Leadership: The Future of Home Gateways

Nadav Liebermann|

Home Router Evolution – From Gateway to the Hub of the Digital Home 

As our lives become increasingly digitized, and telcos evolve from mere connectivity providers to comprehensive home digitization enablers, the home router is transforming from a simple gateway to the central hub of the digital home. The potential computing power of the ISP router has surged, with CPU performance increasing, on average, by over 350% and memory capacity by an astounding 1,500% in the past decade. This trend will continue to accelerate as WiFi chipset manufacturers integrate Neural Processing Units (NPUs) into router CPUs, enabling the local execution of AI applications on ISP Customer Premises Equipment (CPE). 

The Foundation of a Digital Home 

Just as the applications we use learn about us over time, the next phase of experiences provided by our ISPs must adapt to our home internet usage patterns. Over the past five years, our gaming, streaming, and work-from-home activities have surged, with usage and bandwidth requirements often increasing more than 10X. ISPs can leverage these growing demands to introduce new capabilities such as WiFi prioritization and other value-added services. Similarly, by analyzing each end-user usage patterns, ISPs can optimize connectivity bundles and enhance CPE capabilities to better meet the needs of their customers. 

Device and Service Identification – The Building Blocks to Enhancing User Experience 

A deep understanding of the digital home requires additional insights into what’s happening inside. Traditionally, telcos have focused on outward observability from the gateway/router, but now they need to expand their view inward. Simply identifying whether a household with 20 devices is using 2-4 high-bandwidth devices (e.g. smartphones, computers, 4K TVs, etc.) and the rest are low-bandwidth IoTs (sensors, lightbulbs, printer, etc.), or if there are 6-10 high-bandwidth devices, can significantly impact the connectivity bundle and WiFi equipment provided. Overlaying this information with the actual internet usage — whether it’s a household with three kids gaming simultaneously or five roommates primarily browsing — enables ISPs to optimize the user experience, increase end-user satisfaction, and reduce churn.  

The Challenges of Device and Service Identification 

Identifying devices and services within the home network is a complex and ongoing challenge. New devices and services are constantly being introduced at an ever-accelerating pace, each with unique characteristics and behaviors. Devices often change how they interact with the network, and some, like smartphones — which typically make up more than 30%-50% of new devices connecting to networks daily — intentionally obscure their identities to protect user privacy, using methods such as randomized MAC addresses. Similarly, services evolve in how they use the internet, necessitating continuous updates to identification methods. This dynamic environment demands advanced technological solutions and constant vigilance to ensure accurate identification and optimal network performance. 

Nadav Liebermann|
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