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Silicon Valley-based Ignition Design Labs has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new Wi-Fi router designed to “thrive” in congested environments with multiple bandwidth-hungry activities going on simultaneously.

Dubbed Portal, the router is being offered for the introductory price of $149 and is expected to ship late summer. The project has already raised more than $130,000 of its $160,000 goal with 58 days remaining in the campaign.

Portal is based on patent-pending congestion management technologies and has received “special FCC certification” to operate in the entire 5GHz spectrum, according to the company. The use of nine antennas and 10 state-of the-art radios plus access to additional airwaves (spectrum) is said to enhance connection speed, coverage, and reliability in congested environments where connection of multiple devices alongside HD video streaming, real-time gaming, and video chatting can lead to a frustratingly slow and unreliable network.

“Ninety-eight percent of Wi-Fi routers on the market today use less than 35 percent of the available spectrum,” said Terry Ngo, CEO and co-founder of Ignition Design Labs. “Our engineers created Portal to fundamentally redefine the consumer Wi-Fi experience. We give you three times more spectrum for faster video downloads, elimination of buffering issues and an improved overall Internet experience.”

In crowded settings, such as multi-unit apartments, dorms, and small businesses, “Portal performs up to 300 times faster than a conventional consumer router and delivers three times lower latency,” according to the company.

Key features include:
• Fast lanes – Wideband DFS Spectrum access for maximum performance in congested environments
• Smart lanes – Dynamic channel steering to keep connections in the fastest lanes
• Clear lanes – Active traffic and interference monitoring
• 7 operating bands – Including full-band UNII-2 DFS
• Portal mobile app – Smart device-based management and security
• Rolling code secure guest network – Supports multiple simultaneous guests with simple mobile app-based access requests
• Easy setup • Flexibility – Control Portal using simple standard mode (app-based) or advanced mode (web GUI-based) to satisfy everyday users and expert users
• Adaptive smart mesh technology is used to avoid interference and latency issues; two or more Portals can be setup for extended range in large homes
• App-based parental control
• Active intrusion detection and smart lock-out to prevents unauthorized access to network and router settings
• Wave-2 802.11ac with multi-user MIMO (Multi-Input Multi-Output)
• AC2400 concurrent dual-band – Quad-stream 5GHz and triple-stream 2.4GHz
• Bluetooth Smart

For more information, visit kickstarter.com.