In order to make your Internet more enjoyable, what has the router gone through over the years

2021.07.16

Between the broadband operators and the people who actually use the network, the router can be said to be one of the most important roles. Of course, the optical modem is also one of them, as a special purpose for reading the address in each packet and then determining how to transmit Intelligent network equipment, routers well assume the role of gateways between networks.


I have to say that the development of the Internet is really fast. Think about it when I was in junior high school, I was still using Tencent's 3G version to "watch online" the text live broadcasts of events such as NBA. Now as long as the broadband at home is strong, online 4K is not a problem (although many online the bit rate of the video is far from the level of true 4K), which also confirms the substantial improvement of the network from the side.


Between the broadband operators and the people who actually use the network, the router can be said to be one of the most important roles. Of course, the optical modem is also one of them, as a special purpose for reading the address in each packet and then determining how to transmit Intelligent network equipment, routers well assume the role of gateways between networks. By forwarding and exchanging numerous information on the network, that is, routing technology, it satisfies the general public's comprehensive application of data, voice and image, and promotes and promotes the development of the entire Internet and network technology.

It can be said that routers constitute the backbone of the Internet. Its processing speed is one of the main bottlenecks of network communication, and its reliability directly affects the quality of network interconnection. Therefore, in campus networks, regional networks, and even the entire Internet research field, router technology has always been at the core, and its development process and direction have become a microcosm of the entire Internet research.


As the first-generation router in name, the AGS officially launched by Cisco in 1986 was more responsible for connecting the incompatible computer networks in the university before it came out. Even after the official release, it mainly For scientific research and educational institutions and enterprises to connect to the Internet, the function of the router can be realized by connecting multiple network cards to one computer, and the CPU is responsible for routing mobile phones, forwarding processing, equipment management, etc.


The second-generation router appeared with the increase of network traffic, mainly to solve the increasing burden of CPU and bus. Due to the greater improvement in forwarding performance, it can also provide rich connection methods and Interface density has been widely used in the Internet and corporate networks.

In the 1990s, Web technology turned out to be the rapid development of IP networks, and the content of users' access to the Internet has been greatly enriched. In order to cope with this situation, there is a fully distributed structure, which is the third-generation router of the technology of separating routing and forwarding. The third-generation router is responsible for the management of the entire device and the collection and calculation functions of the routing through the main control board, and the data forwarding between the bus and the service board is completely independent of the main control board, achieving parallel high-speed processing, making the processing performance of the router into Times increased.

In the mid and late 1990s, with the commercialization of IP networks, including complex operations such as QoS guarantee, routing lookup, stripping/adding of Layer 2 frame headers, routers implemented through ASICs also appeared, which was also the early gigabit switching Type router.

After entering the millennium, various new technologies such as network management, user management, business management, MPLS, VPN, controllable multicast, IP-QoS, and traffic engineering have been added to routers to deal with key IP business processes. The above uses programmable network processor technology designed specifically for IP networks to make the router more powerful.

Wi-Fi technology has advanced along with routers. Since the godfather of Wi-Fi Michael Marcus proposed to the FCC to open up unlicensed spectrum for industry use and increase the transmission power of unlicensed spectrum devices, manufacturers have The formulation of relevant standards began. In 1991, NCR's engineering team and its joint venture partner AT&T developed WaveLAN technology in the Netherlands. This technology is considered the embryonic form of Wi-Fi. Later, the standard versions of IEEE 802.11, 802.11b and 802.11a, were approved. WECA also gave the technology the name "Wi-Fi", plus Apple introduced Wi-Fi for the first time in its new generation of iBook laptops. , So that this technology can be displayed in front of the public.


Since then, Wi-Fi technology has become a new technology rushed by major manufacturers, from individuals to families, from homes to public places, into the lives of each of us. WECA has also launched 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ax and other standards in full swing, which is the Wi-Fi 4, Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6 we are familiar with later.

Now, after more than 20 years of development, the transmission speed of Wi-Fi 6 is 873 times that of the first-generation Wi-Fi. Compared with the most popular Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6 is faster, supports more concurrent devices, lower latency, and lower power consumption. Wi-Fi 6 uses OFDMA technology that is the same as 5G, combined with 1024-QAM high-order modulation, can support a maximum bandwidth of 160MHz, and the speed is nearly three times faster than WiFi 5. Intelligent frequency division technology can support more devices concurrently and increase the capacity of access devices by 4 times. The access devices are more concurrent, which can reduce the queuing phenomenon, actively avoid interference coloring, and reduce the delay by two-thirds. When the terminal device is on standby, it supports the on-demand wake-up function, which reduces the terminal power consumption by 30%.


Compared with Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6's technical transcendence is all-round. At present, laptops, smartphones, tablets and other products launched in the second half of 2019 are all equipped with Wi-Fi 6 wireless network cards. If users upgrade their home routers to Wi-Fi routers, they can enjoy faster Wi-Fi Internet experience.

So the question is, are you in front of the screen using a Wi-Fi 6 router?