Telecom Infra Project (TIP)

From Edgecore to OpenWiFi: How Hardware Innovation Is Supporting Future-Proof Networks

The podcast spotlights the OpenLAN ecosystem—formerly OpenWiFi—and its expanding portfolio that now includes switching and an upcoming gateway solution. Speakers from the Telecom Info Project, TIP, and Edgecore explain how the community’s open‑source approach is reshaping network hardware for telecom operators, ISPs, and managed service providers. Key developments include a PKI‑driven zero‑touch provisioning model that guarantees plug‑and‑play interoperability among multiple vendors, eliminating lock‑in. In 2025 the OpenLAN community shipped over 400,000 PKI‑certified access points, a three‑fold increase from prior years, and aims to double or triple that figure in 2026. Partnerships with the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) and TIP are driving new features such as indoor Automatic Frequency Coordination (AFC) and end‑to‑end Quality‑of‑Service (QoS) across Wi‑Fi, switching, and gateway layers. Edgecore exemplifies the hardware side of the initiative, offering Wi‑Fi 5, 6, and 7 access points for indoor and outdoor deployments, each equipped with integrated IoT radios (Bluetooth, Zigbee, Thread). Their contributions extend to multi‑GPU switches and the emerging OpenLAN gateway, all built to the new PKI certification framework. The community’s AFC work tackles indoor location accuracy to dynamically adjust transmit power, while QoS metrics from WBA are being upstreamed into the OpenLAN codebase, enabling smarter traffic offloading for mobile networks. For operators, these advances translate into faster, cost‑effective rollouts of vendor‑agnostic infrastructure, reduced R&D duplication, and a future‑proof platform that can adapt to emerging 6 GHz spectrum and high‑bandwidth applications. The open‑source model also broadens the supply chain, fostering competition and innovation across the telecom hardware market.