Routers can really become the hub of smart homes.

Routers can really become the hub of smart homes.

What's the difference between intelligent routing and ordinary router?

When it comes to intelligent routing, many people may focus on the word "intelligence". In fact, intelligent routing is not as mysterious as imagined. In short, it's not that smart routers are smart, but that the previous routers were too unintelligent.

The so-called intelligent router, that is, intelligent management router, compared with ordinary routers, is just like the difference between the current smart phone and the previous function machine.

It has a series of complete computer hardware systems, such as CPU and flash memory, and an independent operating system. Users can install various applications themselves, control their bandwidth, control the number of people online, browse the web and control their online time. At the same time, it has powerful USB*** sharing function to realize intelligent management of networks and devices.

As for the router system, although various manufacturers claim that their products are different, in the final analysis, they all adopt OpenWRT router system based on Linux or SDK, because this can not only reduce the development difficulty and shorten the development cycle, but also these systems and SDK are open source.

Therefore, the cost of intelligent router is not much higher than that of traditional router, especially the scheme of packaging chips with MTK function in Taiwan Province can further reduce the hardware cost, which is also the reason why the price of intelligent router is not very expensive.

Of course, many intelligent routers adopt the same or similar hardware scheme, and the firmware of different manufacturers can theoretically brush each other. So intelligent routing is actually a competition for its operating system (we prefer to call it firmware).

What can intelligent routing do?

In fact, this is also the original intention of major manufacturers to launch intelligent routers. On the one hand, it is functional, and each product has different characteristics and is integrated into its own business functions. For example, some products pay attention to offline download, some pay attention to network security protection, and some build multimedia platforms to achieve seamless integration with a series of products such as mobile phones and televisions. We can also think that we can basically guess the main functional areas of any Internet vendor that introduces intelligent routers.

On the other hand, in view of the widespread shortage of computers for home users and the difficulty in configuring traditional routers, intelligent routers have simplified the setup page and displayed those complicated setup options and parameters in a graphical way, which has a friendly interface and greatly reduced the setup difficulty, even for the elderly and primary school students.

In addition, users can also install an app to expand functions, such as offline download, video advertising, online game acceleration, network speed limit and so on.

In addition, intelligent routers are also effectively combined with mobile phones. As long as you install the corresponding APP on your mobile phone and register (registration means binding your account to the device to realize remote management), you can control the wireless router at home anywhere (as long as there is a network).

Of course, the above two aspects can only be regarded as the initial stage of intelligent router. Nowadays, smart home is a hot field. For example, in hot summer, one hour before I get home, I use my mobile phone to remotely control the air conditioner at home, the rice cooker with soaked rice starts cooking, and the water heater starts to boil bath water. ...

This is not empty talk. Products with such functions have come out, such as NEST, an intelligent temperature control device for air conditioning system with self-learning function, and an electric kettle with WiFi control function, which are introduced by Neslab smart home equipment manufacturers in the United States.

Can intelligent routing become the hub of smart home?

Whether intelligent routing can become the hub of smart home is still discussed from the communication principle of smart home. We know that all appliances in smart home life will be equipped with WiFi module or wired network module. Mobile phone plays the role of control center, and WiFi (wired or not) plays the role of signal center.

Smart home needs wireless (or wired) routers to realize interconnection with smart home and control smart buttons such as mobile phones. Therefore, only by opening the communication link between the router and home appliances can the unification of smart homes be realized.

However, it is difficult to implement because there is no unified communication protocol between the products of these home appliance manufacturers and network manufacturers. At present, several sets of standards are only known in China, but they are not made public because of trade secrets and other issues. It will take at least a few years for these standards to be unified. At present, many electrical appliances only realize remote power switch through smart plug. As for the complex operation of electrical appliances, even remote control operation, it still takes time to perfect.

Fortunately, some home appliance manufacturers have begun to establish smart home alliances with network manufacturers, and are studying the use of unified communication protocols and interfaces to promote the development of smart homes.

In addition, the remote control and monitoring of smart homes require these devices to access the Internet, and the router plays the role of the home Internet portal, so it is not difficult to understand the fierce competition between these Internet vendors and network vendors in the field of intelligent routing.

There is a tendency to replace traditional routers.

Although the smart router market is very hot at present, it accounts for a very low proportion in the whole home router market, and a large number of users are still using non-smart routers provided by traditional manufacturers.

This is mainly because these traditional manufacturers have accumulated a long brand reputation, and even a brand has become synonymous with routers, so consumers also have a wait-and-see attitude towards new intelligent routers. In addition, intelligent routers are basically sold in B2C mode, but they are hard to find in the physical market, so they lose a large part of the market invisibly.

Of course, price is also a very sensitive factor, so intelligent routers will not bring much impact to the traditional router market in the short term.

However, intelligent routing has all the functions of traditional home routing, and its operation is simple and fast, and its price will not be much more expensive than traditional routing, so it will still play a great role in the future home router market.

Therefore, although the strategic position of intelligent router as the entrance of smart home has not been finalized, the combination with the Internet and smart home is the future development direction of routers, so more and more intelligent routers will join this general trend.