A host of G.hn (gigabit home network) products were on show at CES last week, with Marvell’s new chip taking center stage. The number of certified gigabit-capable systems approved by the HomeGrid Forum, the alliance supporting the ITU G.hn wired digital home standard, and its Accredited Test House, Allion Labs, currently stands at 19 – a figure which the industry alliance predicts to rise significantly over the year.
Marvell was exhibiting what it called its first product to include the full ITU-T G.hn specification with MIMO support, the new 88LX5152 chip. It claims performance speeds between two and three times faster than legacy powerline systems, designed to increase the range of 802.11ac or 802.11ad WiFi extenders and other consumer devices.
Few have taken the plunge at providing forecasts for G.hn devices, but way back in 2008, ABI Research made an optimistic stab at it – estimating that by 2013 some 42 million G.hn-compliant boxes would ship, including set tops, residential gateways and other consumer premises equipment (CPE) hardware.
Additional data from US researcher In-Stat in 2011 projected that G.hn would make impressive gains in set tops, becoming the most popular standard by 2013 and challenging MoCA by 2015.
Unfortunately, the HomeGrid Forum does not disclose how many G.hn-compliant devices have shipped to date, but does claim that some 1 million Marvell G.hn chips have been sold, which may have had a negative impact on shipments of HomePlug products running Qualcomm and Broadcom chips.
The reality looks right now to be substantially less than forecast 42 million devices and if it really is going to take over the Homeplug crown, shipments will have to accelerate rapidly. HomeGrid says 2017 will be its year, with advancements such as Arris’ recently launched G.hn adapters for the retail market – a potential win in the long-awaited dethroning of rival HomePlug in its beloved stronghold of Amazon and BestBuy.
The HomeGrid Forum also broke China towards the end of 2016, announcing that chip vendor Xingtera became the first certified silicon vendor of G.hn chipsets in the country. Xingtera’s XT18000 chipset will support the G.hn home networking standard, allowing for cable network speeds of up to 1 Gbps. The group says G.hn is China’s most “accepted” smart home wireline home network technology, a claim that has been bitterly resisted by HomePlug adherents.
Last month, six system vendors had their submitted G.hn products approved for certification following testing at the HomeGrid Forum’s Plugfest event in Shanghai. These vendors are Arris, CIG, Comtrend, NetBit, Zinwell and ZTE. On top of Marvell and Xingtera, Sigma Designs was another silicon vendor which had a product certified. Over the past 12 months, the number of certified G.hn products has more than doubled.
As well as competing with HomePlug and MoCA, G.fast is challenging G.hn in MDUs (multi-dwelling units) as the two cannot co-exist over the same wires, meaning the race will go the service provider that gets to the MDU first, and G.fast is expected to dominate in access markets.
The MDU access market has perhaps been G.hn’s biggest success to date, with South Korean operator KT using the standard in residences and has also set up an export operation to sell G.hn to telcos in other countries.
Whichever standard comes out on top as the battle rages, the developments of these powerline networking technologies represent a win for OTT video and the proliferation of bandwidth-constraining content formats such as 4K and VR.
“At HomeGrid Forum we are thrilled that the industry is recognizing and supporting the strength and growth of G.hn as it transforms the way entertainment is delivered over the home network,” said Donna Yasay, the President of HomeGrid Forum. “While G.hn is just at the beginning of its journey and rapidly gaining momentum, other technologies are inevitably falling short and will likely depart from the industry. CES 2017 is a great platform to continue to champion the capabilities and benefits of G.hn to attendees from around the world.”