Calix Launches Smart Home System to Deploy Solutions Outside of Retail

Calix recently announced at ConneXions 2018 the Calix GigaSpire smart home system, powered by EXOS, the Experience Operating System.

Subscribers are spending more than $2 billion each year with consumer electronics retailers in a quest to improve their Wi-Fi and smart home connectivity. Now, communications service providers (CSPs) can be the first to market with a system that delivers the most powerful mesh Wi-Fi in the world, universal IoT support and Amazon Alexa built-in. By seizing the initiative in the smart home, CSPs can elevate their revenues by capturing subscriber spend while delivering an unmatched subscriber experience. The combination of the GigaSpire and the EXOS operating system creates a unique smart home system that is currently available in two models – the GigaSpire BLAST and the GigaSpire MAX.

Both GigaSpire models will provide:

• Wi-Fi performance: As the first carrier-class Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) system, the GigaSpire will dramatically improve bandwidth throughput and wireless coverage across the subscriber premises. The system features 12 Wi-Fi streams with 8 available to Wi-Fi backhaul. With the GigaSpire, CSPs can support the broadest possible range of high-bandwidth services and connect hundreds of devices throughout the subscriber premises.
• Bandwidth Optimization: By integrating the latest Multi-User, Multiple-input and Multiple-output (MU-MIMO) technology, the GigaSpire is capable of supporting up to 8 simultaneous, symmetrical data streams to dramatically expand network capacity and improve efficiency. This capability enables the GigaSpire to optimize bandwidth delivery across hundreds of devices connected to a smart home network.
• Security: The latest security capabilities are integrated into the GigaSpire at both the hardware and software level. With Physical Unclonable Functions (PUF) integrated into the chipset, the GigaSpire can create a digital “finger-print” for each system that can't be replicated or “spoofed” to ensure network authentication at the gateway level. This is designed to dramatically reduce the risk of unauthorized devices connecting to the network. At the software level, the EXOS operating system allows CSPs to partner with best-in-class security vendors to provide additional layers of security across the network.
• Always-on: Every GigaSpire system features the EXOS operating system. Because EXOS is fully abstracted from the hardware with a modular software architecture, software updates do not require the gateway to be rebooted or taken offline. This results in fewer service disruptions and ensures that critical smart home applications are always available.
• Instrumentation and Analytics: The advanced instrumentation built into the GigaSpire provides telemetry, performance and behavioral analytics that CSPs can leverage through the Calix Cloud to ensure that performance is optimized across the network and at the device level. With the Calix Cloud, CSPs can remotely manage and proactively trouble-shoot issues that impact the subscriber experience.
• Ecosystem: Thanks to its modular design, EXOS includes native software containers, that enable CSPs to easily deploy and monetize new ecosystem solutions that are available via the soon-to-be-launched Calix Solutions Exchange. This new approach for deploying services will dramatically reduce time to market and deployment complexity for CSPs.

The GigaSpire MAX adds:

• IoT: In addition to Wi-Fi 6, the GigaSpire MAX includes full support for the latest IoT protocols – Zigbee, ZWave, combo BlueTooth Low-Energy and BlueTooth Classic. Because the GigaSpire MAX supports all of these standards, CSPs can now offer the widest array of smart home services in the market. Thanks to EXOS, all of this IoT functionality can be managed in a fully integrated manner through the best-in-class Calix Smart Home subscriber application.
• Amazon Alexa: Amazon Alexa is fully integrated into the GigaSpire MAX, simplifying CSP operations and enriching the smart home experience. With Alexa built-in, subscribers can play music, check the weather, control smart home devices and access tens of thousands of Alexa skills – all you have to do is ask.

“The Calix GigaSpire smart home systems include all of the advanced features and functionality service providers need to respond to changing subscriber demands,” said Shane Eleniak, SVP, Platforms, Calix. “The unprecedented combination of Wi-Fi 6 and universal IoT connectivity with voice services built-in—all powered by EXOS—allows service providers to elevate both their brand and the subscriber experience. The ability to add new subscriber services without complex deployments, make this far and away the best smart home solution on the market. The fact that it’s only available to service providers will allow them to elevate their position in the subscribers’ lives and deliver a solution that is future-proof. Instead of a capital expense, their smart home systems will become a strategic weapon and a platform for growth.”