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Open Source WLAN Controller?

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Written by Devin Akin

Friday, 05 October 2007

Have you ever seen DD-WRT? How about SVEASOFT? Perhaps WiFi-Box? No, well they've been around for quite a long time, and they are organizations taking advantage of Linksys open source code for WLAN routers such as the WRT54G, WRT54GL, and WRT54GS. These organizations take the source code for these units, provided by Linksys, and pack an amazing set of additional features into a somewhat unassuming piece of hardware - all for cheap or free. Cool. "So why does that matter to me?" you ask?

If these guys can build an AP that can do your laundry and sit your kids while replacing half a dozen other networking devices, surely they can build a cheap (hardware) or free (software) controller rivaling at least some of today's enterprise class WLAN controllers. With an interface like the one used by Linksys, can you imagine how easy it will be to use such a controller?

I've also thought about the fact that someone might decide to customize this open source Linksys AP firmware to work with any number of today's enterprise WLAN controllers. Can you imagine what that would do to AP prices (especially for $1500 802.11n APs)? We'd suddenly be living in an open source thin AP world. Hey, a guy can always dream, right?

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