Roadmap to 2030

This document describes the strategic evolution of the OpenWISP project through 2030. Our objective is to consolidate OpenWISP as the most versatile, enterprise grade, open source network management system and controller available.

As networking environments continue to become increasingly heterogeneous, the focus shifts toward reducing the barrier to entry while expanding the technical reach of the platform.

The primary objectives for the 2026 to 2030 period are:

  1. Frictionless deployment: Move toward a day one ready approach by simplifying installation workflows and providing clear, sensible default configurations that work out of the box.

  2. Refined user experience: Improve the interface of core modules so that frequent operations such as device onboarding, configuration, monitoring, and firmware upgrades are intuitive and accessible, including for users with limited technical background.

  3. Community driven feature parity: Address long standing feature requests from the community and reduce functional gaps compared to proprietary network management solutions.

  4. Ecosystem agnosticism: Expand support beyond OpenWrt by improving compatibility with other operating systems and by adopting standard protocols such as NETCONF and YANG, as well as TR-069 and TR-369. This will allow OpenWISP to manage a wider range of hardware and software platforms, becoming useful to a larger audience.

Read on for a detailed description of the technical goals.

Note

If you are interested in a specific task or would like to help shape the future of open source networking, please refer to:

Table of Contents:

Installation & Usability

Simplify the deployment and initial configuration process to lower the entry barrier for new users.

  • Simplified Deployment: Package Python dependencies into a unified archive or executable to enable single-command installation.

  • Cloud Readiness: Provide optimized, preconfigured VM images for rapid deployment across major cloud providers.

  • Edge/Local Instance: Develop a lightweight OpenWISP variant optimized for self-hosting on low-cost hardware, featuring:

    • Support for resource-efficient time-series databases as an alternative to InfluxDB.

    • SQLite and SpatiaLite support for local storage.

    • Integrated FreeRADIUS and captive portal configuration template.

    • Layer 2 auto-discovery for seamless device onboarding.

  • User Experience Studies:

  • Facilitate Upgrades:

    • Notify users through the web interface when new OpenWISP versions are available.

    • Evaluate guided upgrades through the web interface.

    • Verify requirements are met before attempting the upgrade (Python version, other system dependencies).

    • Automatically create a full backup before upgrading.

    • Automatically restore the backup if the upgrade fails.

  • Facilitate the setup of VPN automations: See OpenWISP VPN Deployer Linux Package GSoC 2025 Project Idea for more information.

Agent Improvements

  • Automated Management Interface Detection: Remove the requirement for manual configuration of the management interface in the OpenWISP agent. The agent will automatically identify the management tunnel and determine the appropriate IP address for core operations, including:

    • Connectivity monitoring (ping/checksum)

    • Remote shell access

    • Active monitoring checks

    See also: GitHub Issue openwisp-config#208

  • Full Configuration Reporting: Enable the agent to send the complete device configuration to OpenWISP, providing a comprehensive view of the current state directly in the controller.

  • Local Change Synchronization: Implement automatic detection of local configuration changes. The agent will sync these updates back to the controller to ensure the central database remains accurate and local modifications are not overwritten.

  • Layer 2 Device Onboarding: Enable automatic discovery and enrollment of network devices within the same broadcast domain. This allows OpenWISP to:

    • Detect new hardware as soon as it is connected to the local network.

    • Adopt and configure devices without requiring connection to a cloud controller.

    • Simplify local deployments by removing the need for manual IP discovery or static configuration.

Firmware Tools

  • Pre-configured Firmware Images: Provide ready-to-use OpenWrt images for all supported targets, pre-configured to enroll into the OpenWISP Demo System, which would allow testing most OpenWISP features quickly.

  • Custom Image Builders: Supply image builders for all targets to allow users to generate custom firmware locally.

  • Automated Build Pipeline: Automate the compilation and publishing of firmware images and builders to ensure timely updates for new OpenWrt releases and reduce maintenance overhead.

Configuration Editor

  • Redesign for ease of use: Redesign the configuration editor by adopting interface patterns and workflows that are already well-tested and widely accepted in the networking industry, such as those found in OpenWrt LuCI and other leading open-source networking software. To ensure these improvements truly simplify complex tasks like VLAN and radio management, we will partner with UX designers and conduct UX research studies. This approach aims to bridge the gap between powerful enterprise functionality and the intuitive ease of use expected in modern networking environments.

  • Enhanced Configuration Visibility: Update the editor to manage full device configurations without overwhelming the interface. Implement a high-level overview with drill-down capabilities for specific details.

  • Data Deduplication: Automatically identify and filter configuration data already stored in templates or existing device settings to prevent redundant entries in the database.

  • Unified Editor Interface: Redesign the editor to display the complete device state with clear visual distinctions between:

    • Current local device settings.

    • Device-specific overrides stored in OpenWISP.

    • Inherited settings from OpenWISP configuration templates.

  • Expanded Variable Support: Enable the use of variables across all field types beyond standard string values.

  • Rich Context Support: Allow the definition of configuration contexts using non-string data types, such as lists and objects.

  • Improved Validation Feedback: Overhaul backend error reporting to provide clear, actionable messages when configuration validation fails.

Documentation

Step-by-Step Tutorials: Develop comprehensive guides for common deployment scenarios, including:

  • Hotspot and captive portal setup.

  • PPPoE configuration.

  • Event-driven automation and custom hooks, such as:

    • Triggering HTTP requests when a device enters a critical state.

    • Executing HTTP requests upon receiving RADIUS accounting stop packets.

Dashboard & Visualization

  • Time-Series Analytics: Add interactive dashboard charts with filtering capabilities to track Device status trends (online, offline, and total counts).

  • Advanced Network Viewer: Replace the current map with a feature-rich viewer similar to Freifunk MeshViewer, supporting toggling between geographic and logical network views.

Indoor Maps

Note

These subjects have been worked on during Google Summer of Code 2025; see the project board [GSoC25] General Map: Indoor, Mobile, Linkable URLs.

  • Building and Floor Support: Implement indoor mapping capabilities to:

    • View device placement per floor within buildings.

    • Provide seamless navigation between geographic, logical, and indoor views.

IP Intelligence

Note

These subjects have been worked on during Google Summer of Code 2025; see the project board [GSoC25] WHOIS Information and IP Address-Based Geolocation.

  • WHOIS Data Collection: Automatically collect and store WHOIS information for the device last_ip when a public IP is detected.

  • UI Integration: Display a summary of WHOIS data in the interface with the option to expand for full technical details.

Geo App Improvements

Note

These subjects have been worked on during Google Summer of Code 2025; see the project board [GSoC25] WHOIS Information and IP Address-Based Geolocation.

  • IP-Based Geolocation: Support approximate device locations derived from IP geolocation data.

  • Location Management: The UI will clarify how approximate locations are generated and provide options to:

    • Manually refine the coordinates to a precise location.

    • Disable the feature for specific devices if not required.

  • Global & Multitenant Controls: Allow geolocation features to be toggled globally or at the per-organization level.

Syslog & Event Hooks

  • Centralized Log Collection: Enable the collection and storage of syslog entries from OpenWrt-managed devices.

  • Log Management API: Provide an API endpoint for querying and searching collected logs.

  • On-Demand Device Logs: Add a dedicated tab to the device details page to load and inspect logs for specific hardware.

  • Real-Time Log Viewer: Implement a global interface for viewing live log streams across all managed devices.

  • Log-Based Automation: Allow the system to trigger alerts or custom actions based on specific log content or patterns.

Wireless Support

  • Optimized Roaming: Implement support for 802.11k and 802.11v to facilitate band steering and network load balancing.

  • Integrated Wireless Management: Provide a user-friendly interface within the OpenWISP device page that offers management parity with the OpenWrt LuCI wireless configuration.

Firmware Upgrade UX

Note

Part of these subjects have been worked on during Google Summer of Code 2025; see the project board [GSoC25] Firmware Upgrader UX improvements.

  • Group Upgrades: Extend firmware upgrade capabilities to allow targeting specific device groups, in addition to per-device or per-organization options.

  • Real-Time Progress Tracking: Enhance visual feedback to provide live status updates during firmware upgrades without requiring page refreshes.

  • Persistent Upgrade Tasks: Implement support for continuous upgrades that remain queued for offline devices, executing automatically once they reconnect.

  • Automated Firmware Image Identification

    • Removal of Predefined Image Types: Eliminates the need for maintainers and users to manually define and maintain firmware image identifiers or types.

    • Automatic Server-Side Extraction: The server automatically extracts the firmware image identifier from uploaded files to determine device compatibility. If automatic detection fails, the user will be notified and asked to provide the required information manually.

    • Automatic Device Matching: Uses the hardware identifier reported by openwisp-config to automatically associate devices with compatible firmware images. The existing behavior will continue to work and will be adjusted only if necessary.

    • Improved User Experience: Removes the need for users to customize the hardware definition list when using custom hardware or standard OpenWrt firmware images that are not yet defined in OpenWISP.

    • Reduced Maintenance Overhead: Avoids the need for administrators to track internal OpenWrt or vendor-specific image identifiers, which frequently change over time.

Monitoring Improvements

  • Database Compatibility: Implement support for InfluxDB 2.0.

  • SNMP Support Finalization: Complete and refine SNMP monitoring support for OpenWrt and Ubiquiti AirOS devices. Review and integrate existing code from GSoC 2021 to provide a stable monitoring baseline.

  • Rapid Health Diagnostics: When a device status reports a "PROBLEM," provide an immediate drill-down view to identify the specific root cause. Ensure full feature parity for these diagnostic insights via the REST API.

  • Asynchronous core refactoring: Refactor core Django components to support asynchronous execution. This transition enables the use of the gevent execution pool within the Celery distributed task queue. By moving away from synchronous, blocking operations, OpenWISP can achieve higher concurrency and throughput, allowing it to manage a much larger number of concurrent device operations while reducing overall CPU and memory usage.

  • Adaptive task orchestration: Implement an intelligent and adaptive Celery worker and consumer model that automatically adjusts concurrency based on available hardware resources.

  • Priority aware scheduling: Introduce a scheduler that supports multi queue topologies with explicit priority handling. This ensures that time sensitive tasks, such as configuration changes and reactive network operations, are not delayed by resource intensive background workloads, such as those generated by the monitoring module.

Networking Features

  • Bulk Command Execution: Implement the ability to dispatch commands to multiple devices simultaneously, including status tracking and result logging for each target. Maintain REST-API feature parity.

  • Interactive Web Shell: Develop a browser-based interactive terminal to allow direct command-line access to managed devices through the OpenWISP interface.

  • Expanded VPN Protocol Support: Add support for IPsec and SoftEther.

  • Advanced Traffic & Access Control:

    • Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) and Layer 7 firewall rules.

    • WPA-Enterprise EAP-TLS integration via OpenWISP RADIUS.

  • Platform & Protocol Expansion:

    • Support for pfSense and Vyatta.

    • Management support for TR-069 / TR-369, NETCONF, and CAPWAP.

    • Integration with proprietary vendor firmwares, including Ubiquiti and MikroTik.

Mesh Networking

  • Atomic Group Updates: Improve mesh stability by synchronizing configuration changes across groups. This prevents connectivity loss during rollouts (e.g., coordinated radio channel adjustments).

  • Dynamic Topology Mapping: Utilize monitoring data from mesh interfaces to generate real-time topology maps of the active network.