HomeGrid Forum, a global, non-profit trade group promoting the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union's G.hn standardization efforts, announced that one of the largest telecommunications service providers in Europe and Latin America -- Telefónica -- has been appointed to the organization's board of directors. This announcement confirms the growing importance and broadening adoption of G.hn as the next-generation global standard for wired home networking.
The G.hn standard is designed to deliver a unified technology for the wired home network that addresses key issues of service providers, electronics manufacturers, and consumers alike. Through one worldwide standard, G.hn will unify the networking of content and devices over any wire -- coax cable, phone, and power lines. G.hn enables service providers to deploy new offerings, including IPTV, more cost effectively; allows electronics manufacturers to provide powerful devices for connecting all types of entertainment, home automation, and security products throughout the house; and greatly simplifies consumer purchasing and installation processes.
The addition of Telefónica to the HomeGrid board is evidence of the increasing support from telecommunications carriers around the world. Telefónica's global reach throughout Europe and Latin America, along with their endorsement of the standard, increases the momentum for the adoption of G.hn on a global scale.
Telefónica joins a growing list of industry-leading organizations that are part of HomeGrid Forum. Global leaders in the service provider, computing, and consumer electronics industries also support the adoption of G.hn through their participation in the ITU-T.
For a complete list of HomeGrid Forum members, visit www.homegridforum.org.
Showing posts with label standards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label standards. Show all posts
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
Thomson WiFi 802.11n broadband gateways comply with newly ratified IEEE Standard
Thomson, a worldwide leader of services to content creators, has welcomed the formal ratification of the 802.11n wireless technology standard by IEEE. Its new generation of WiFi-enabled cable gateways are fully compatible with the ratified standard.
In 2009, the company launched a new range of 802.11n gateways, certified by the WiFi alliance as draft 2.0, allowing service providers to offer multiple services to the networked home including high quality video over wireless. This new ratification by the IEEE guarantees that future home networking equipment will be compliant with these devices.
Levering its expertise in the WiFi alliance for xDSL gateways, Thomson has developed a range of Wireless “n“ products in conjunction with DOCSIS 3.0 or EuroDOCSIS 3.0, resulting in a very fast and convenient solution for cable operators. The company’s product portfolio includes the TCW770 DOCSIS/EuroDOCSIS 3.0 wireless cable gateway and TWG870 wireless Voice gateway for the European market as well as the DCW775 DOCSIS 3.0 wireless cable gateway and DWG875 DOCSIS 3.0 wireless Voice gateway for the U.S. market.
For the full press release, click here.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Thursday Morning Presentation by IEEE and Via Licensing
The IEEE and Via Licensing Corporation presented ideas for addressing IPR issues for technology standards.
The IEEE and Via Licensing Corporation are writing a new chapter in IP licensing by bridging the gap between standards settings activities and the formation of patent pool programs aimed at facilitating those standards. This is a first-of-its kind collaboration from two leaders in IP management that is bound to have a significant impact on the future of standards and joint licensing efforts. Patent pools allow multiple licensors of patents that read on a technology to provide their essential patents under a single license to implementers of the technology. The creation of a patent pool can save licensors and licensees time and money and allow new technologies to hit the market faster by reducing IP obstacles.
The IEEE and Via Licensing Corporation are writing a new chapter in IP licensing by bridging the gap between standards settings activities and the formation of patent pool programs aimed at facilitating those standards. This is a first-of-its kind collaboration from two leaders in IP management that is bound to have a significant impact on the future of standards and joint licensing efforts. Patent pools allow multiple licensors of patents that read on a technology to provide their essential patents under a single license to implementers of the technology. The creation of a patent pool can save licensors and licensees time and money and allow new technologies to hit the market faster by reducing IP obstacles.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
A Global Standard for Home Networking
by Rob Gelphman, Chair, Marketing Work Group, MoCA
Current forecast for home entertainment networking suggests continuation of multiple parallel technologies, standards and mediums, with choices based on ease of use and applications. “Let the marketplace decide,” is the rallying war cry on this competitive path toward hypothetical industry standardization. We recommend a different, more agreeable course founded upon shared interests and mutual benefit for providers, manufacturers and consumers alike.
Too many technologies are purporting to be standards, especially for home entertainment networking. Consumers want home entertainment networking solutions, not another standard. They want whole-home connectivity that includes gaming, HD video, telephone service, internet and data access. They want to purchase, with confidence, a system that is easy to install and inexpensive. They could care less about technologies or standards.
Current forecast for home entertainment networking suggests continuation of multiple parallel technologies, standards and mediums, with choices based on ease of use and applications. “Let the marketplace decide,” is the rallying war cry on this competitive path toward hypothetical industry standardization. We recommend a different, more agreeable course founded upon shared interests and mutual benefit for providers, manufacturers and consumers alike.
Too many technologies are purporting to be standards, especially for home entertainment networking. Consumers want home entertainment networking solutions, not another standard. They want whole-home connectivity that includes gaming, HD video, telephone service, internet and data access. They want to purchase, with confidence, a system that is easy to install and inexpensive. They could care less about technologies or standards.
Is it any wonder the end consumer is confused? We, as an industry, offer too many standards and not enough solutions. It is solutions that are of interest to consumers and it is at that level that we should be competing. Competition does not need to create confusion to thrive, but confusion is evidence of competing ideas. Too many standards foster misunderstanding and redundancy. They can serve to bind customers to their point of entry generating discontent. If we are not careful, consumers will wash their hands of the whole affair.
A standard is more than a specification. Technical merits are cornerstone of the evaluation process, as are organizational effectiveness and economic benefits. Market size, immediate and downstream economic value and management by industry leaders should also be considered when evaluating and adopting standards.
To say that the home entertainment network is and will be a blend of technologies, standards and mediums has become cliché. This thinking does not take into account the problem of moving high definition video from room to room or screen to screen in real time. In addition to considerations such as overall performance, quality of service, operating frequency and availability, economic benefits, ability to function in multiple industry segments and environments, we must not lose sight of the fact that the solution must ensure real-time HD video distribution within homes.
We believe that no one standard will dominate the home entertainment networking marketplace. However, the ones that stick around will not interfere with other mediums, technologies or devices in use. They must appeal to multiple geographies and industry segments. These standards will also provide value throughout the entire chain. The dominant home entertainment networking standards will also utilize the ideal medium designed for video in the first place--coax.
There are too many standard and not enough solutions. While service providers try them all, endless trials further delay deployments and the consumer grows ever more confused.
A standard provides a framework within which innovation thrives. When an industry accepts a standard it is an indication of maturity and confidence. It is beneficial to the industry and their customers to begin finalizing these home entertainment networking standards.
This article was published for the 2008 CONNECTIONS™ Conference Industry Insights, the official publication of CONNECTIONS™.
Monday, June 9, 2008
HD Video Drives Next-Generation Wired Networking Technology
The market for home networking products has been traditionally dominated by wireless products based on the IEEE 802.11 standard (with its 11b, 11g and the latest 11n versions). Wired alternatives, which make use of power lines, phone lines and coaxial cables, have had a smaller share of the market. In my opinion this has been caused by two factors:
- Lack of awareness: many consumers do not even know that there are other networking alternatives in addition to 802.11 wireless
- Wireless was “convenient” and “good enough”: although wireless in general is not capable of guaranteeing perfect reliability for video distribution applications (common problems such as dropped packets or interference from other wireless networks in the neighborhood, can affect video performance significantly), most users of 11g and 11n networks do not notice these problems when sending e-mails or browsing the Internet.
This situation is now slowly changing, and the major reason is that there is a new generation of multimedia applications for which 802.11 wireless is not “good enough” anymore. In general, most application that require sending high-quality video are too sensitive to packet drops and cannot work reliably over wireless networks.
There are two major drivers for video distribution applications:
• IPTV Service Providers (like AT&T here in the US or British Telecom or Telefonica in Europe) are providing video content in both SD and HD format using their existing fiber and DSL access networks. All of them need a reliable way to deliver the IPTV content from the Residential Gateway to one or more Set-Top-Boxes somewhere else in the home.
The vast majority of IPTV Service Providers today are choosing wired options (power lines, phone lines and coaxial cable) for in-home IPTV distribution, as wireless is usually not capable of satisfying the strict QoS requirements demanded by IPTV Service Providers.
One of the most popular options is using DS2 200 Mbps technology (based on the UPA standard) to deliver video over existing power lines, of which British Telecom, Telefónica or Portugal Telecom are good examples.
• A new generation of devices capable of receiving HD video (Apple TV, Microsoft XBOX 360, etc) are rapidly becoming popular in many homes. Most of the times, wireless solutions do not have the bandwidth and the reliability to carry HD streams to every room in consumers’ homes, so many users are being forced to look for alternative wired networking solutions. DS2-based Powerline networking adapters from well-known consumer brands such as NETGEAR, D-LINK or BUFFALO are also good examples of products that address these needs.
The powerline industry is working hard to develop products that provide even higher data rates. UPA has recently announced its effort to develop a 400 Mbps standard (called PowerMAX), while individual companies (like DS2) are already demonstrating technology capable of achieving that data rate.
Market Fragmentation
Even if wired networking products are becoming more popular, in the long term the industry still needs to address a significant challenge before it can achieve the same market size as wireless: market fragmentation.
Today, consumers and Service Providers have to choose between at least five different incompatible options for wired networking: MoCA (using coaxial cables), HomePNA (using phone lines and coaxial cables) and three different powerline standards (UPA, HomePlug and HD-PLC) which can also be adapted to operate over coaxial cable and phone lines. Having so many non-interoperable options is negative for the industry, and has also been one of the reasons why the market for wired networking has not grown as fast as wireless.
The industry is now taking its first steps towards solving the fragmentation problem. While some groups seem to forget that the ultimate goal of standards is achieving full interoperability (go read “How to Kill the Home Networking Industry” for a controversial discussion on this point), other efforts to achieve a unified standard seem to be going in the right direction.
As I recently wrote in “Towards A Converged Home Network”, ITU-T G.HN today provides the most promising path to achieve a single-PHY/single-MAC standard that can work over any wire (power lines, phone lines and coaxial cables):
"The trend to use more than one wire has already started. ITU-T (the standardization organization responsible for creating all DSL and VDSL standards) has created a group [G.HN] with the goal of designing a specification that will work over any wire [power lines, phone lines and coaxial cables] with a target PHY data rate of 1 Gbps. Actual throughput will be medium-dependent (today's tentative targets are achieving 400 Mbps in 99% of coaxial cable connections and 250 Mbps in 98% of powerline connections), to reflect the fact that some lines are "cleaner" than others."
HomeGrid Forum, an organization founded by DS2, Intel, Panasonic, Infineon, Texas Instruments and six others companies, plays a role which complements ITU-T G.HN.
HomeGrid Forum has three major goals:
1. Accelerating the creation of a "single-PHY/single-MAC" standard at ITU-T G.HN for powerline/coaxial/phoneline
2. Ensuring fast market adoption, and
3. Ensuring interoperability.
During the Closing Keynote on June 25, 2008, at CONNECTIONS™ in Santa Clara, Paul Liao, CTO, Panasonic, will discuss the efforts of HomeGrid Forum to promote a single, worldwide standard and will outline the benefits of the initiative in driving worldwide adoption of networked multimedia products.
Chano Gomez, VP Technology & Strategic Partnerships, DS2, will be a speaker in the panel “CONNECTED DEVICES: A Grown-up Home Network: Imagine the Possibilities!”
---------------
Submitted by Chano Gomez, DS2
- Lack of awareness: many consumers do not even know that there are other networking alternatives in addition to 802.11 wireless
- Wireless was “convenient” and “good enough”: although wireless in general is not capable of guaranteeing perfect reliability for video distribution applications (common problems such as dropped packets or interference from other wireless networks in the neighborhood, can affect video performance significantly), most users of 11g and 11n networks do not notice these problems when sending e-mails or browsing the Internet.
This situation is now slowly changing, and the major reason is that there is a new generation of multimedia applications for which 802.11 wireless is not “good enough” anymore. In general, most application that require sending high-quality video are too sensitive to packet drops and cannot work reliably over wireless networks.
There are two major drivers for video distribution applications:
• IPTV Service Providers (like AT&T here in the US or British Telecom or Telefonica in Europe) are providing video content in both SD and HD format using their existing fiber and DSL access networks. All of them need a reliable way to deliver the IPTV content from the Residential Gateway to one or more Set-Top-Boxes somewhere else in the home.
The vast majority of IPTV Service Providers today are choosing wired options (power lines, phone lines and coaxial cable) for in-home IPTV distribution, as wireless is usually not capable of satisfying the strict QoS requirements demanded by IPTV Service Providers.
One of the most popular options is using DS2 200 Mbps technology (based on the UPA standard) to deliver video over existing power lines, of which British Telecom, Telefónica or Portugal Telecom are good examples.
• A new generation of devices capable of receiving HD video (Apple TV, Microsoft XBOX 360, etc) are rapidly becoming popular in many homes. Most of the times, wireless solutions do not have the bandwidth and the reliability to carry HD streams to every room in consumers’ homes, so many users are being forced to look for alternative wired networking solutions. DS2-based Powerline networking adapters from well-known consumer brands such as NETGEAR, D-LINK or BUFFALO are also good examples of products that address these needs.
The powerline industry is working hard to develop products that provide even higher data rates. UPA has recently announced its effort to develop a 400 Mbps standard (called PowerMAX), while individual companies (like DS2) are already demonstrating technology capable of achieving that data rate.
Market Fragmentation
Even if wired networking products are becoming more popular, in the long term the industry still needs to address a significant challenge before it can achieve the same market size as wireless: market fragmentation.
Today, consumers and Service Providers have to choose between at least five different incompatible options for wired networking: MoCA (using coaxial cables), HomePNA (using phone lines and coaxial cables) and three different powerline standards (UPA, HomePlug and HD-PLC) which can also be adapted to operate over coaxial cable and phone lines. Having so many non-interoperable options is negative for the industry, and has also been one of the reasons why the market for wired networking has not grown as fast as wireless.
The industry is now taking its first steps towards solving the fragmentation problem. While some groups seem to forget that the ultimate goal of standards is achieving full interoperability (go read “How to Kill the Home Networking Industry” for a controversial discussion on this point), other efforts to achieve a unified standard seem to be going in the right direction.
As I recently wrote in “Towards A Converged Home Network”, ITU-T G.HN today provides the most promising path to achieve a single-PHY/single-MAC standard that can work over any wire (power lines, phone lines and coaxial cables):
"The trend to use more than one wire has already started. ITU-T (the standardization organization responsible for creating all DSL and VDSL standards) has created a group [G.HN] with the goal of designing a specification that will work over any wire [power lines, phone lines and coaxial cables] with a target PHY data rate of 1 Gbps. Actual throughput will be medium-dependent (today's tentative targets are achieving 400 Mbps in 99% of coaxial cable connections and 250 Mbps in 98% of powerline connections), to reflect the fact that some lines are "cleaner" than others."
HomeGrid Forum, an organization founded by DS2, Intel, Panasonic, Infineon, Texas Instruments and six others companies, plays a role which complements ITU-T G.HN.
HomeGrid Forum has three major goals:
1. Accelerating the creation of a "single-PHY/single-MAC" standard at ITU-T G.HN for powerline/coaxial/phoneline
2. Ensuring fast market adoption, and
3. Ensuring interoperability.
During the Closing Keynote on June 25, 2008, at CONNECTIONS™ in Santa Clara, Paul Liao, CTO, Panasonic, will discuss the efforts of HomeGrid Forum to promote a single, worldwide standard and will outline the benefits of the initiative in driving worldwide adoption of networked multimedia products.
Chano Gomez, VP Technology & Strategic Partnerships, DS2, will be a speaker in the panel “CONNECTED DEVICES: A Grown-up Home Network: Imagine the Possibilities!”
---------------
Submitted by Chano Gomez, DS2
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