Qualcomm launches smart gateway platform to change home networking experience

New network processing power, Wi-Fi capacity and intelligence combine to create a smart home platform

Beijing, China, January 8, 2014 - Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) today announced that its subsidiary, Qualcomm Atheros, is promoting a new type of smart gateway product that uses its latest Internet Processor (IPQ) to enable a robust smart home platform that supports connected devices, systems, applications and things, providing a richer consumer experience at home. The smart gateway combines the processing power of IPQ, the Gigabit Wi-Fi® of Qualcomm® VIVE™ 802.11ac, the intelligence of Qualcomm® StreamBoost™ technology, and an open application environment to enable new services for the connected home. As a digital pipeline, the smart gateway is designed to improve consumers' connected experience at home, enrich the products that operators provide to consumers, and help OEMs and developers showcase their product features with new software and services.

“We believe that intelligent gateways powered by IPQ have the intelligence and processing power to support a growing ecosystem of applications that benefit consumers and service providers,” said Dan Rabinovitsj, senior vice president, Qualcomm Atheros. “Akamai’s intelligent software and applications, such as Pogoplug’s cloud storage and Qustodio’s parental solutions for safely monitoring children’s online activities at home, set the stage for the inevitable emergence of dynamic new network capabilities and applications to enable the smart home.”

As an always-on channel for operators, digital content providers and network vendors, the smart gateway provides a variety of new applications and services to improve consumers' home networking experience. In addition to broadband data, voice and video, the smart gateway enables operators to provide home security, energy management, health monitoring and other services, expanding operators' revenue opportunities and increasing customer retention.

Improve family experience

The IPQ platform has excellent processing power to manage advanced functions such as complex and demanding network applications and services, enabling smart gateways to support a wide range of applications and bring new capabilities to home networks. One of these applications is Qualcomm's StreamBoost technology, which manages network bandwidth in an intelligent way, providing operators with important analysis and remote management capabilities. StreamBoost is a core component of the Smarthome platform, which intelligently manages the bandwidth used by an increasing number of applications and devices in the user's home network, creating a rich and optimal online experience for the modern connected home.

IPQ also enables gateway manufacturers to offer differentiated products through new software services, increased processing power, value-added features and an open source application environment. Qualcomm Atheros provides an SDK that leverages a variety of innovative software features, including StreamBoost and the open source AllJoyn software architecture, designed to simplify the discovery, connection and control of devices, services and applications. Existing developers and newcomers can use the proven platform to fast track applications that expand the connected home ecosystem.

Qualcomm Atheros is working with various companies to demonstrate other applications that leverage the Smart Gateway Platform. For example, caching, streaming and storage applications are designed to create a more enjoyable and enjoyable media and entertainment experience for consumers. Home automation services are designed to provide greater convenience and control of smart homes, while analytics applications provide an easier way to manage local resources and diagnose problems. Home monitoring, parental controls and antivirus features provide better physical and digital security protection.

Providing applications to consumers

At the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Qualcomm Atheros will demonstrate a variety of software and applications to showcase the use cases that can be achieved with IPQ-based intelligent gateways. Akamai's intelligent software demonstrates its ability to optimize the delivery and pre-positioning of content such as video and software. "Extending Akamai's intelligent software to a powerful intelligent gateway significantly improves the speed and reliability of access to content such as video, software and web experiences because it can greatly improve the efficiency of the use of various resources, including resources from the gateway to the network provider and from the gateway to the terminal," said Kris Alexander, chief strategist for connected devices and games at Akamai.

Pogoplug, a leader in unlimited cloud storage and backup for computers and mobile devices, runs software on the Smart Gateway that allows users to connect their hard drives to a router powered by Qualcomm Atheros technology and instantly access files, photos, music and videos at home or on the go. “The Qualcomm Atheros-based Smart Gateway combined with the Pogoplug service is designed to give consumers fast and secure access to content from any device, anywhere, at any time,” said Andrea Chavez, vice president of corporate development at Pogoplug.

Parental monitoring provider Qustodio offers an outstanding solution for understanding, managing and protecting children's online behavior. "Qustodio has revolutionized parental monitoring on a platform powered by Qualcomm Atheros IPQ," said Eduardo Cruz, CEO of Qustodio. "The powerful smart gateway creates a whole new way to protect, monitor and manage devices on a home network. Together with Qualcomm Atheros, we are providing seamless, out-of-the-box protection for parents who want to keep their children safer online."