Devicescape Software

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Devicescape Software, Inc.
Type Private
Founded June 2001 (as Instant802 Networks)
Headquarters San Bruno, California
Key people David Fraser, CEO
Simon Barber, founder and chief scientist
Industry Software, Computer networking
Products Wireless LAN Software
Website www.devicescape.com

Devicescape enables mobile wireless devices to connect to any supported Wi-Fi hotspot or municipal network. Once the device and the network are set up from the Devicescape web site, connecting is automatic.

The Devicescape client and service allows, with minimal configuration:

  • VoIP phone use at hotspots.
  • Network login and authentication from small, limited-interface devices (using 802.1X).
  • Automatic network login from notebook computers.

The Devicescape software and service are free to consumers, but require consumers to agree to allow advertisements as outlined in Devicescape's Terms of Service

Devicescape Software develops software for wireless networking, primarily based on the IEEE 802.11 standard. Founded in 2001 as Instant802 Networks, the company was renamed in January 2005. Devicescape is a venture backed private company. Devicescape provides wireless software for both access points and embedded wireless client devices, supporting chipsets from Atheros, Broadcom and others. The software has been used in wireless devices ranging from LCD projectors, televisions and digital video recorders to PDAs and SOHO access points. Customers include Epson, Sharp, D-Link, Palm, Inc. and Motorola.

In addition to wireless networking software for embedded devices, Devicescape offers a monitoring software solution for wireless LANs that has been used by NTT BroadbandPlatform.

Contents

[edit] Products and services

Devicescape offers Wi-Fi software products as well as providing outsourcing services for device manufacturers integrating wireless capability with their existing devices, or upgrading their existing functionality to the latest standards.

[edit] Devicescape Connect

Devicescape Connect is an auto-connect Wi-Fi solution that includes a small piece of client software and a web service that allows any Wi-Fi enabled device to seamlessly and securely connect to any Wi-Fi network. Once installed, Devicescape 2.0 provides instant access to any open or free network. Network coverage is fully customizable and expandable by adding network credentials once, either on the device or on the devicescape.com web site. The solution works today on 10 different platforms and over 100 different devices. The service supports over 1000 public networks and millions of hotspots.

[edit] Devicescape Agent

Devicescape Agent (DSA) is a portable software package designed to be integrated into existing devices that need up to date, secure wireless networking. Based on the wpa supplicant package, it comes pre-integrated with Linux and Microsoft's Windows CE operating system. The Devicescape Agent can be extended with WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Set-Up. A version including Cisco Systems' Cisco Compatible EXtensions is also available to those with the required Cisco license.

[edit] Wi-Fi Protected Set Up

On May 1, 2006, Devicescape announced Devicescape Agent with WPS, its implementation of the Wi-Fi Alliance's new simple configuration protocol.

[edit] Previous Products and Developments

[edit] Wireless Infrastructure Platform

Wireless Infrastructure Platform (WIP) is a complete Linux distribution for building wireless access points, or devices including a wireless access point function. At its core is a variant of the hostapd software access point package and Devicescape's Advanced Datapath Driver IEEE 802.11 software MAC. The WIP product line and technologies were sold to [1] and is available with full support.

[edit] Wireless Operation Center

Wireless Operations Center (WOC) is a Java desktop application for visualizing and managing complex wireless network deployments, such as public access networks, or hotspot networks.

[edit] Industry affiliations

Devicescape is active in a number of industry groups, including the Wi-Fi Alliance, the Digital Living Network Alliance and the UPnP Forum. They are also active participants in the IEEE and IETF standards bodies. Devicescape co-founder Simon Barber is currently the editor of the IEEE 802.11k radio resource management task group.

[edit] Open source

Devicescape Software (as Instant802 Networks) was the sponsor of the OpenAP open source wireless access point project. The company's products are based on open source software, including the Linux kernel and wpa supplicant.

On May 1, 2006, Devicescape announced that it had made its Advanced Datapath Driver available for inclusion in the Linux 2.6 kernel tree.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Broadcom

[edit] External links