A router developed for the first time in the country will soon be translated into a manufactured in India product.

The developer is IIT-Bombay while the manufacturer will be Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL), Hyderabad. The public sector electronics giant has entered into a licence agreement with IIT Bombay to manufacture high speed transport routers.

A router is a device which helps forward packets of data along networks, says the Internet. For the common user, router is necessary in a LAN (local area network) to connect several computers to the Internet.

The Gigabit Networking Laboratory at IIT Bombay has developed an innovative technology under the leadership of Prof. Aswin Gumaste to make these routers, which promise to set new price/performance benchmarks in an industry dominated primarily by imported products.

With built-in security features and a fully Indian design, this development is significant in the context of fears expressed by experts about the vulnerabilities posed by ‘black box’ products, populating the information highway that carry vital and strategic data, ECIL has said.

With the national data infrastructure set to grow manifold and gigabit pipes slated to enter villages, this development augurs well and fits into indigenous technology space. The ECIL Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Y.S. Mayya, and the IIT Bombay, Director, Prof. Khakkar, signed the agreement on Wednesday.

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