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Google Router Rumors
An anonymous reader writes "There's a new rumor that Google is developing its own router. The company won't comment on the story, but it's been in the hardware business for a while and expanded its presence with Android. If Larry Ellison can go halvsies with HP on a server, then Eric Schmidt should certainly be able to make Cisco nervous."
TFA says that Juniper is doomed because Google is getting ready to switch to their own in-house brand of routers. I find this difficult to believe for several reasons. One is that even if Google is Juniper's biggest customer, one customer does not a demise make -- Juniper has many other customers, including the entire UUnet (MCI, WorldCom, Verizon Business, whatever they're calling themselves this year) backbone. But there are far more practical reasons. Routers contain a lot of specialized hardware designed for rapid switching of packets. Google may have a lot of smart people working for them, but they certainly don't have the resources on board to design and build all of those ASIC's and other custom hardware, and it doesn't really make sense for them to get into that business during a recession just for an in-house project. (And no, don't give me that line about how a fast enough server with multiple Ethernet cards can substitute for even a mid-grade Cisco or Juniper. I manage a data center network and know the numbers. It can't even come close, no matter how good the software is, because a general purpose computer has to forward every packet using software, while a real router only makes a routing decision once and then all the rest of the packets for that destination are switched in hardware at wire speed.)
Nothing to see here. Move along.
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Of course Google would not waste time developing their own ASICs. Companies like Marvell, Broadcom, and Dune offer plenty to choose from, and companies such as FDRY and JNPR already use these to build their own offerings.
It only makes sense for Google to use the building blocks to make a device that meets their specific needs.
The Apple Airport Express and Airport Extreme routers support IPv6, although there's a bug in the latest firmware for doing configured tunnels.
This
PC Engines are another option. Their boards are very similar to the Soekris ones, but easier to find in Europe. They run OpenBSD (and FreeBSD/Linux) very nicely.
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This sort of thing doesn't get offered, it is thrown in or dragged out as a sweetener for a humungeous order. And it is usually covered by a confidentiality clause because they don't want to be forced to offer it to the next, merely large, customer. But if you are placing an order which represents a serious fraction of quarter's output, you can get a lot thrown in - espexially if it doesn't actually cost anything to provide.
Though this would be a problem rather than a benefit for Google. They would have to put up fairly strong Chinese Walls inside their labs to ensure that the team developing their own router hadn't seen the competing device so couldn't be accused of ripping it off.
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I can't believe nobody has made mention of Vyatta. It's an excellent appliance-like distro based on, I believe, Debian.
It's not mentioned because it's not even remotely relevant to the discussion.
All the bells and whistles you'd expect from a high-end device at a fraction (by which I mean ~1/3) of the cost relative to a Cisco purchase.
Including bells and whistles like custom ASICs and switching fabrics? Oh, wait, it doesn't have those. Nothing about Vyatta is "high-end." It is, however, a viable alternative at the very low-end.
"Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman
Tomato is good, too. I found Tomato to be less buggy and more responsive and DD-WRT -- and believe me, I was fanatical about DD-WRT. I used it for years before trying Tomato.
"That which does not kill us makes us stranger." -Trevor Goodchild