There were two hopeful signs this week regarding the unification of home networks, but unfortunately they give slightly conflicting signals, perhaps because they represent scenarios separated by a few years. The first was both MoCA and Wi-Fi being added to DLNA recommended standards and the second is the ITU ratifying the G.hn standard, a move that will trigger a flat out race to 2010 when the first devices should be available.
The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) figures that its job is not to create standards, but to ensure that the standards that are out there all work together, and through a series of plugfests and trials has put forward a vision of how the digital home can come packaged, ready to plug and play. But its first job is to specify sometimes multiple options on how each job can be done, and it has endorsed MoCA an Wi-Fi N as connectivity options in the digital home. It had previously only embraced Ethernet as a connection system.
As part of announcements this week the DLNA also accepted content synchronization and menu sharing which enhance the entertainment possibilities for home network users.
The DLNA has many use case scenarios which were introduced four years ago at its inception. This includes the ability to store video on one device, but network it and play it on another, and using a single remote control to control both local and remote devices.
As a result some of this week’s DLNA steps forward include the ratification of photo, video and audio synchronization across multiple devices as well as menu sharing and offering menu control to other networked devices to go along with the new connectivity standards it is embracing.
But perhaps more exciting is just how the ITU and the technical contributors have managed to get a standard for G.hn ready so quickly. The technology will mean that video and other files can be transported on any type of wiring, twisted pair, power cables or coax, and still deliver up to 20 times the throughout of existing wireless technologies and three times that of existing wired technologies such as MoCA and its main US rival HPNA.
Chip makers are already working on designs to bring to market next year, in time for products the year after. Transceivers will potentially be incorporated into set-top boxes, residential gateways, home computers, home audio systems, DVD players, TVs or any other device that may be connected to a home network.
Companies which are right behind the G.hn standard include DS2, the Spanish chip maker that leads in UPA powerline chips; chip giant Intel; Pulse~link, the UWB pioneer, Texas Instruments, and TV maker Panasonic as well as European chip maker Infineon. Set top chip designer Sigma Designs is also a contributor member and Coppergate, the silicon provider has just announced its full support for G.hn as the network standard for next generation home entertainment.
Coppergate provided the silicon behind HPNA, a direct rival to MoCA which has been adopted in over 5 million devices, many of them delivered through AT&T, and it runs over both twisted pair copper and coax. MoCA stands for Multimedia over Coax Alliance, and began as a grouping of small companies, which won over Verizon’s IPTV effort with its ability to transmit multiple streams of HD video around a home at up to 175 Mbps. Now it has bigger backers including Alcatel-Lucent, Broadcom, the sole MoCA chipmaker Entropic, Freescale, Infineon, Intel, LG, Linksys, Motorola, Netgear, Pace, Panasonic, Samsung, STMicro, Tellabs, Texas Instruments and 2Wire.
Other technologies that have been thrown at this problem includes HANA, HDMI, Wi-Fi, IEEE P1901, IEEE 1394, UPA, UWB, WirelessHD and HomePlug, as well as a recent wireless start up which has attracted huge support in Israeli’s Amimon with its WHDI chip sets which can send multiple HD signals around a home using MIMO antenna and a 40 MHz wide OFDM carrier.
Every single one of these has a different MAC and PHY and the idea behind G.hn is that each wired medium will share a single MAC.
Intellon the chipmaker behind HomePlug, and Entropic the chip designer on MoCA chips so far have made no commitment to building G.hn chips.
‘G.hn is going to be a life-changing technology,’ said Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau in Geneva. ‘With G.hn, every wire in every home around the world can become a home entertainment network. This will enable seamless communication between computers, HDTVs, and telephones over existing wires. This exciting new technology will also foster tremendous innovations such as energy efficient smart appliances, home automation, and telemedicine devices.’
Today MoCA over coax and HPNA dominate video applications over wires which perhaps will later to be replaced by G.hn, while Wi-Fi currently dominates wireless and may continue to or could give way to the Amimon technology for high speed HD video applications.