Devicescapes Linux Wi-Fi Stacks Could Widen World of Wireless

WLAN software specialist Instant802 has renamed itself Devicescape and launched an off-the-shelf Linux Wi-Fi stack meant to speed the arrival of ubiquitous wireless networking. UWP (Universal Wireless Platform) 2.0 includes a Linux reference design and Eclipse-based tools, and targets consumer electronics devices, office equipment and network infrastructure.

Previously, Instant802 offered development services to companies building wireless devices. Now, as Devicescape Software Inc., it will sell packaged Wi-Fi stacks and development kits that enable device builders to roll their own standards-compliant, interoperable Wi-Fi implementations, with advanced features such as central manageability, WPA2 over WDS links, and multiple virtual wireless networks.

CEO Dave Fraser, who joined the company last October after 13 years with Wind River, says the new name reflects a widening mission to foster the proliferation of wireless-enabled mobile and fixed devices, which together will comprise a “devicescape.”

Fraser said, “The name Devicescape is a reminder of our mission to usher in the second generation of the Internet, with billions of devices that are interacting with human beings, interacting with each other, and linked by wireless connections whether they are mobile products or not.”

According to Fraser, UWP represents the first commercial packaging of technology already widely used in products such as Gateways SMB access points, Sharps Galileo PVR/Wi-Fi access point, Epsons Powerlite WLAN projector and others.

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Fraser said, “One good example is the D-Link DWL2210 AP, a business class access point for small- to medium-sized businesses. If you unwrapped a bunch of these boxes in a small business, you could power them on and they would all seek out each other and configure themselves as a cluster with a single point of management. Theyd also secure themselves, and start up an authentication service within the cluster. Its a low-cost product, [and] the devicescape software [gives] it a very low cost of deployment. Thats the device-to-device intelligence that we specialize in.”

“We have executed about 20 different design wins so far,” added Fraser, “and Linux has been the OS in most of those design wins.”

/zimages/6/28571.gifRead the full story on LinuxDevices.com: Linux Wi-Fi stack aims to vastly widen wireless device deployments.