Today's unimpressive range of home routers is due to the low power of embedded CPUs for broadband access equipment.
That is why for its VDSL2 service, Openreach chose to disable the routing functionality of the Huawei HG612, even though it is technically a router and a modem. The device cannot cope with both tasks at higher VDSL2 line speeds.
Instead, Openreach opted to use an ethernet layer bridge from the Huawei. A separate device performs all the routing (the HomeHub, etc). And yet the HG612 has the most powerful DSL processor - the 400MHz dual MIPS32 core BCM6368 - available today from Broadcom, the industry leaders.
Similar devices used in North America suffer the same performance issues. AT&T powers its Pace/2Wire CPE modem-routers with a dual-core 400MHz VLIW Trimedia TM3260. At least on paper, that is a much more powerful CPU than the 6368. Yet American consumers still find the device lacks the power to route traffic at higher line speeds.
The
EC Code of Conduct on Energy Consumption is generous enough and doesn't in itself limit the functionality of home gateways.
The Code provides a specific power limit for each function found in broadband access equipment - the 802.11 transceiver, the DSL front end and line driver, USB controller, the ethernet switch, etc. Each function is given its own power limit, and those limits are summative.
The power level limit for a 4 port gigabit ethernet switch in the current Code (November 2008) is 3.7 watts. And the limit for an 802.11n dual band transceiver is 5.0 watts, twice the allowance for a single transceiver (2.5 watts).
A well-loaded modem-router could possibly use 30 watts and still be within the Guidelines.
The limitations in today's modem-routers are due to technical issues rather than political do-gooders.
cheers, a
EDIT: From the Code of Conduct [1]
Choose a WAN side interface (or even two or three interfaces)
Now load up the device...
[1]
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/sustainable_growth/docs/broadband_eq_code-conduct.pdf