[Cerowrt-devel] anyone have real info on the google router?

[Cerowrt-devel] anyone have real info on the google router?

[David Lang]

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/meet-onhub-new-router-for-new-way-to-wi.html

specifically the issues of firmware and drivers?

David Lang

Re: [Cerowrt-devel] anyone have real info on the google router?

[Jim Gettys]

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On Tue, Aug 18, 2015 at 3:31 PM, David Lang <david@lang.hm> wrote:

>
> http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/meet-onhub-new-router-for-new-way-to-wi.html
>
> specifically the issues of firmware and drivers?


​
It runs a very recent kernel (3.18, IIRC).
​  The devel prototype originally ran OpenWrt; should be pretty easy to
make OpenWrt run on it again.  Has a speaker on it (so you can do proof of
actual presence to help bootstrap security stuff).  Ath10k wireless.  Has a
TPM module on board, so you could do a poor man's hsm for storing keys.​
​

​ Android style unlockable bootloader.​  The intent is it be an open
platform. Has a hardware packet assist engine: there will be the usual
issues of latency vs. bandwidth; not much use of that this instant.

Current software admin is done entirely via Android apps and a google back
end: no web gui for it at the moment (Trond isn't comfortable with a web
server on the router).  Secure upgrade of the firmware.
                                                    - Jim


>
> David Lang
> _______________________________________________
> Cerowrt-devel mailing list
> Cerowrt-devel@lists.bufferbloat.net
> https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/cerowrt-devel
>

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Re: [Cerowrt-devel] anyone have real info on the google router?

[David Lang]

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On Tue, 18 Aug 2015, Jim Gettys wrote:

> On Tue, Aug 18, 2015 at 3:31 PM, David Lang <david@lang.hm> wrote:
>
>>
>> http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/meet-onhub-new-router-for-new-way-to-wi.html
>>
>> specifically the issues of firmware and drivers?
>
>
> ​
> It runs a very recent kernel (3.18, IIRC).
> ​  The devel prototype originally ran OpenWrt; should be pretty easy to
> make OpenWrt run on it again.  Has a speaker on it (so you can do proof of
> actual presence to help bootstrap security stuff).  Ath10k wireless.  Has a
> TPM module on board, so you could do a poor man's hsm for storing keys.​

IIRC the Ath10k wireless is not very hackable (big binary blob), so that would 
mean that unless Google has been able to do something new here, it's not very 
hackable for make-wifi-fast.

Am I remembering correctly?

otherwise it sounds like a nice device for the price.

David Lang

> ​
>
> ​ Android style unlockable bootloader.​  The intent is it be an open
> platform. Has a hardware packet assist engine: there will be the usual
> issues of latency vs. bandwidth; not much use of that this instant.
>
> Current software admin is done entirely via Android apps and a google back
> end: no web gui for it at the moment (Trond isn't comfortable with a web
> server on the router).  Secure upgrade of the firmware.
>                                                    - Jim
>
>
>>
>> David Lang
>> _______________________________________________
>> Cerowrt-devel mailing list
>> Cerowrt-devel@lists.bufferbloat.net
>> https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/cerowrt-devel
>>
>

Re: [Cerowrt-devel] anyone have real info on the google router?

[Mikael Abrahamsson]

On Tue, 18 Aug 2015, David Lang wrote:

> IIRC the Ath10k wireless is not very hackable (big binary blob), so that 
> would mean that unless Google has been able to do something new here, it's 
> not very hackable for make-wifi-fast.
>
> Am I remembering correctly?
>
> otherwise it sounds like a nice device for the price.

The IPQ8064 from Qualcomm might become more FOSS-friendly over time, 
Qualcomm seems to be going in the right direction, but right now it's 
fairly closed down.

So no, I don't see this platform as a short term make-wifi-fast 
development platform, at least not without getting Qualcomm onboard and 
working closely with the project.

If I understand correctly, we have both the packet accelerator (closed 
source) and the ATH10K wireless (closed source) to contend with.

-- 
Mikael Abrahamsson    email: swmike@swm.pp.se

Re: [Cerowrt-devel] anyone have real info on the google router?

[Steven Barth]

Wow, I must imagine it to be especially painful to reinvent the wheel
for all things QoS, WiFi optimizations, IPv6, Firewalling etc. and
rebuilding that on top of ChromeOS.

Re: [Cerowrt-devel] anyone have real info on the google router?

[David Lang]

On Wed, 19 Aug 2015, Steven Barth wrote:

> Wow, I must imagine it to be especially painful to reinvent the wheel
> for all things QoS, WiFi optimizations, IPv6, Firewalling etc. and
> rebuilding that on top of ChromeOS.

It's all Linux under the covers, so there's probably far less reinventing than 
you think.

I'll bet a lot of that stuff is either used as-is (with a different config 
system), or they just don't implement it (I doubt it has QoS for example)

David Lang

Re: [Cerowrt-devel] anyone have real info on the google router?

[Mikael Abrahamsson]

On Wed, 19 Aug 2015, David Lang wrote:

> I'll bet a lot of that stuff is either used as-is (with a different 
> config system), or they just don't implement it (I doubt it has QoS for 
> example)

The marketing indicates that it can prioritize some hosts over others, so 
it'll have QoS, but it might just be whatever IPQ8064 offers as standard 
(since the packet forwarding hardware is controlled by proprietary 
firmware and proprietary kernel modifications to interact with this 
firmware).

-- 
Mikael Abrahamsson    email: swmike@swm.pp.se

Re: [Cerowrt-devel] anyone have real info on the google router?

[Steven Barth]

>It's all Linux under the covers, so there's probably far less
>reinventing than 
>you think.

The kernel is the least of your issues. Try finding a halfway decent network management daemon aimed at routers that handles v6 potentially all sorts of tunnels, properly integrates firewall routing qos etc.