prpl Foundation Adds Carrier Interest Group to Shape the Future of Smart Home Technology

SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwired - Jul 18, 2016) - The prpl Foundation, the open-source, community-driven, collaborative, non-profit foundation with a focus on enabling next-generation datacenter-to-device portable software and virtualized architectures, has announced the formation of its first Carrier Interest Group (CIG). The charter of the CIG is to ensure that the technical needs of major international carriers are represented and communicated to the wider prpl community and contribute to prpl's coordinated response to new regulations put forth by government agencies, such as the FCC in the US, which potentially limit the use of open source software. 

The new group will also help define possible new enhancements for OpenWrt software and hardware with the aim to produce carrier-grade, commercial standards for improving the security of home gateway, home network and smart home devices.

Wojtek Makowski, CTO of the French embedded software for the digital home company, SoftAtHome, and Pasquale Bombino, VP of engineering at connected solutions specialist ADB, will co-chair the prpl Carrier Interest Group and lead the way in shaping its guidance and recommendations. Both companies are key providers of CPE software for network and television operators.

"This is a great opportunity to blur two worlds (open source and commercial entities) that are much closer than they are perceived; through prpl we have the concrete possibility to speed-up carrier-grade products leveraging the power of the distributed and cooperative approach typical of open source communities," said Pasquale Bombino, VP of engineering at ADB and co-chair of the prpl Carrier Interest Group.

"The prpl Foundation represents a structured, credible, reliable approach to foster common efforts of the industry and key open source communities, such as OpenWrt, to build innovative software solutions," said Wojtek Makowski, co-chair of the prpl Carrier Interest Group and CTO of SoftAtHome. "The prpl Carrier Interest Group in particular will act as a bridge between open source communities and commercial entities, such as carriers and their technology ecosystem, to help narrow the gap between the requirements of both sides."

Earlier this year, the Home Gateway Initiative announced its dissolution after it fulfilled its mission to set out key specifications for home gateways, home networks and the smart home. The prpl Foundation aims to further this initial work by developing the use of open standards to help manufacturers make their products and components more secure and interoperable.

"The prpl Foundation is uniquely positioned to carry on the good work that the HGI has started with its HGI Virtualization document published earlier this year," said Art Swift, president of the prpl Foundation. "We have a proven track record in what it takes to be successful when working with open standards through our vibrant, active community and an outstanding ability to deliver quality, peer-reviewed and actionable guidance. We are pleased to welcome ADB and SoftAtHome to prpl and hope others see the potential of IoT in the home to become much safer and more secure in the future."

The first meeting of the prpl Carrier Interest Group took place in Paris on the 28th and 29th of June and assembled key members of prpl, the OpenWrt and related developer communities, as well as major software vendors providing software for the carriers, CPE equipment providers, chipset vendors, and members of the Broadband Forum. 

"SoftAtHome was pleased to host this first face-to-face meeting. Carrier inputs were much appreciated and the meeting clearly showed that an open source community and commercial entities can work together in a coordinated manner," concluded Makowski.

About prpl
prpl (pronounced "Purple"), is an open-source, community-driven, collaborative, non-profit foundation targeting and supporting the MIPS architecture -- and open to others -- with a focus on enabling next-generation datacenter-to-device portable software and virtualized architectures. prpl represents leaders in the technology industry investing in innovation in efficiency, portability and compatibility for the good of a broad community of developers, businesses and consumers. Initial domains targeted by prpl include datacenter, networking & storage, connected consumer and embedded/IoT. See: www.prplfoundation.org.