AVM Talks Broadband Routers in a Time of Chip Shortages and COVID

In a new interview AVM, which is a well-known German manufacturer of home networking products (e.g. FRITZ!Box broadband routers for UK ISPs), has spoken to ISPreview.co.uk about how they’re responding to some of the year’s biggest challenges – from COVID-19 to 6GHz WiFi and a global shortage of semiconductor chips etc.

AVM was founded during 1986 in Berlin (Germany) and has been busy growing its influence ever since. The company now claims to be one of the top two manufacturers of broadband devices in Europe and holds an impressive market share in their home country. A number of UK ISPs, such as Zen Internet, have also adopted their routers after the manufacturer became popular with enthusiasts.

However, the past few months have also been some of the most turbulent in living memory for the tech sector, which has struggled with COVID-19, a shortage of semiconductor chips, issues caused by the post-Brexit UK EU trade agreement and the introduction of new WiFi technology.

Suffice to say, we were curious to know how AVM were coping with all of these challenges, as well as how they perceived the future direction of consumer router technology. Thankfully, the company’s UK Sales Manager, Matthew Tyler, was happy to help answer the myriad of questions that we threw his way.

The Interview

1. At a time when router manufacturers, including AVM, are already starting to ship devices that can cope with multi-gigabit Wi-Fi speeds via the latest 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) standard, why is it that the physical LAN port on the back of so many broadband routers has remained hobbled to just 1Gbps on almost every model we see?

The situation is starting to become increasingly relevant as more FTTP broadband ISPs are beginning to launch 2Gbps, 3Gbps and even 10Gbps packages in the consumer space. It’s not like faster Ethernet LAN standards than 1Gbps haven’t been around for a long time already.

ANSWER:

With the welcomed growth in FTTP infrastructure, and the challenges we’ve all been facing with working from home, the importance of the home gateway has never been greater than today. The competitive router market still requires careful calculations of cost and performance.

We began Q1 2020 by announcing our roadmap for Fiber and Wi-Fi 6 routers with the launch of our FRITZ!Box 6660 with an integrated DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Services Interface Specification) 3.1 cable modem. Since then we have been working on other new Wi-Fi 6 routers: 7530 AX, 5530 AX, and with a few delays the 7590 AX, currently in modest volumes to the German market only.

These will be followed later this year by the 4060, 5590, 6690 market launches – all are high-end Wi-Fi 6 multi-gigabit LAN/WAN routers – and the Mesh Wi-Fi FRITZ!Repeater 6000. All of these routers have a platform with a 2.5 Gbs WAN/LAN port and up to four additional 1 Gbs LAN ports, with powerful processors and memory for allocating multi-gibabit bandwidth throughout the home network.

We’ve had a few delays with the rollout this year but with in-house ingenuity and the years-long partnerships with our suppliers and manufacturing partners, we’re managing to keep pace with our game plan.

2. Speaking of 802.11ax and multi-Gigabit speeds, a number of countries like the UK and USA have approved the 6GHz band for use in Wi-Fi networks (Wi-Fi 6E). What sort of extra challenges and considerations do you have to make when introducing an entirely new band like this into your hardware, given that for many years you’ve only had to design new kit for the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands? Plus, when might we actually see a 6GHz router from AVM?

ANSWER:

It’s very exciting for us to see the allocation of the 6GHz band, the first new band since the introduction of 5GHz (11ac) nearly ten years ago.

AVM has been developing Wi-Fi hardware for a number of years and the next stages are eagerly anticipated, to an already well established branch of our engineering department.

We have had strong in-house radio competency for quite a long time. We started with Bluetooth, and soon added DECT, Wi-Fi 2.4, and Wi-Fi 5 Ghz integration. Yes, switching to 6Ghz means different antennas, different test-devices and different interference, but we have a number of talented people working in our HF-department, all eager to apply the broader spectrum to our Wi-Fi routers.

An extra challenge will be for our marketing team to help distinguish the meaning of Wi-Fi 6 (11ax) and Wi-Fi 6E (inclusion of 6 GHz band, in addition to 2.4 and 5 GHz).

3. While we’re on the topic of Wi-Fi, perhaps you can help to settle a debate. We see a lot of routers with external screw-in wireless antennas (often several of them stick out the back – with adjustability), and others that stick to internal solutions. The assumption is often that external screw-in antennas should be better for coverage and performance in the home, but in our experience, this isn’t always the case.

Often it can be very hard to perceive much difference between the two methods, but equally we don’t have a true like-for-like platform to test with. AVM tends to make them internal, so what are your thoughts on this and have you conducted any studies to support the design decisions here?

ANSWER:

Over the years, there have been many iterations of design to optimise the internal antenna layout respective to the specific Wi-Fi chipset. Besides the widely accepted aesthetic appeal of a cleaner router design, the omnidirectional character of internal antennas is better suited for residential in-house coverage.

The overwhelming majority of customers want a simple Wi-Fi set up, and internal antennas (up to 12 antenna on a triband 4×4 Wi-Fi router/extender) have the advantage of not needing any attention or manual alignment, and have the added advantage of not breaking off, hanging loose or going lost.

The hard-featured external antennas can be helpful for focusing the Wi-Fi beam to a specific client’s direction. This is usually unnecessary for residential environments.

4. When it comes to broadband routers, one of the hottest debates of recent times has tended to centre on the issue of firmware updates, particularly for security purposes (patching vulnerabilities etc.). Sadly, some manufacturers tend to release a new model, put out one or two firmware releases, and then completely forget about the device.

What sort of approach does AVM take when it comes to tackling vulnerabilities and adding features via firmware to older routers. And how long (in years) do you think is right for a router manufacturer in the consumer space to continue providing updates?

ANSWER:

We strive to maximise the service life of our routers. Fresh firmware updates make ownership so much more fun, secure, and lends reassurance when reaching for this brand again in the future. It is our commitment to support these products as long as we can.

Sometimes that might not be possible due to external constrains (for example, when a chipset is no longer supported or the manufacturer of that chipset no longer exists), but our goal is to deliver software with new features and bugfixes for as many years as possible. You can see that we often continue to update the software long after production of the model has been discontinued.

For example, FRITZ!Box 7490 was launched in 2013 and we will be releasing the new FRITZ!OS in the next few weeks.

Flick over to page 2 to continue this interview.