Home Networking

Home  Networking  is  the  collection  of  elements  that  process,  manage,

transport, and store information, enabling the connection and integration of

multiple computing, control, monitoring, and communication devices in the

home. The price of home computers keep falling, while the advantages for

consumers from being connected online investing and shopping, keeping in

touch with long distance friends and tapping the vast resource of the Internet

CE keep multiplying. No wonder an increasing number of households own

two or more PCs.Until recently, the home network has been largely ignored.

However,  the  rapid  proliferation  of  personal  computers  (PCs)  and  the

Internet  in  homes,  advancements  in  telecommunications  technology,  and

progress in the development of smart devices have increasingly emphasized

the  need  for  an  in  home  networking.  Furthermore,  as  these  growth  and

advancement  trends  continue,  the  need  for  simple,  flexible,  and  reliable

home networks will greatly increase.

1. Overview

The latest advances in the Internet access technologies, the dropping of PC rates, and the

proliferation of smart devices in the house, have dramatically increased the number of

intelligent devices in the consumer’s premises. The consumer electronics equipment

manufacturers are building more and more intelligence into their products enabling those

devices to be networked into clusters that can be controlled remotely. Advances in the

Wireless communication technologies have introduced a variety of wireless devices, like

PDAs, Web Pads, into the house. Advent of multiple PCs and smart devices into the

house, and the availability of high-speed broadband Internet access, have resulted in in-

house networking needs to meet the following

requirements of the consumers:

Simultaneous internet access to multiple home users

Sharing of peripherals and files

Home Control/Automation

Multi-player Gaming

Connect to/from the workplace

Remote Monitoring/Security

Distributed Video

The home networking requirement introduces into the market a new breed of

products called Residential Gateways. A Residential Gateway (RG) will provide the

necessary connectivity features to enable the consumer to exploit the advantages of a

networked home. The RG will also provide the framework for Residential Connectivity

Based Services to reach the home. Examples of such Residential Connectivity Based

Services include: Video on Demand, IP Telephony, Home Security & Surveillance,

Remote Home Appliance Repair & Trouble shooting, Utility/Meter Reading, Virtual

Private Network Connectivity and Innovative E-commerce solutions.

Using a reusable framework for home service gateway architecture, offers end-to-end

product design and realization services for the residential gateways. Coupled with our

standards based and ready-to-deploy home networking components & solutions (like the

Wipro BlueTooth Stack, IEEE 1394 core, Voice Over Broadband Infrastructure,

Embedded TCP/IP Stack etc.), our customers can enjoy the much need time to market

advantage and competitive edge.

2. What is Home Networking?

We have all become very comfortable with networks. Local area networks (LANs) and

Wide Area Networks (WANs) have become ubiquitous. The network hierarchy has been

rapidly moving lower in the chain towards smaller and more personal devices. These

days, Home Area Networks (HANs) and Personal Area Networks (PANs) are joining

their larger brother as ever-present communications channels.

Home Networking is the collection of elements that process, manage, transport, and store

information, enabling the connection and integration of multiple computing, control,

monitoring, and communication devices in the home.

The price of home computers keep falling, while the advantages for consumers from

being connected CE online investing and shopping, keeping in touch with long distance

friends and tapping the vast resource of the Internet CE keep multiplying. No wonder an

increasing number of households own two or more PCs. Until recently, the home network

has been largely ignored. However, the rapid proliferation of personal computers (PCs)

and the Internet in homes, advancements in telecommunications technology, and progress

in the development of smart devices have increasingly emphasized the need for an in

home networking. Furthermore, as these growth and advancement trends continue, the

need for simple, flexible, and reliable home networks will greatly increase.

3. Home Networking Technologies

Various Technology components are involved in making Home Networking a reality.

These are aptly summarized in Figure 3.

Figure 3:

Home Networking Technologies

Source:

Network Protocols for the Home CE John Canosa

The Technology Components in the Domain of Home Networking are:

Broadband Access Networks

(DSL, Cable, Broadband Wireless) that provides

the ubiquity of always ON high-speed digital pipe to the Home.

Residential Gateway Devic

e, capable of interconnecting the Broadband Access

Network and the Home Area Network. This device should be capable of

delivering valued services to Home.

In-Home Networking

Topologies (both wired and wireless), that interconnect

the various devices of the home.

Device Access Technologies

that facilitate the discovery and interplay of the

home devices and services.

Broadband Access Networks

The function of broadband Access Networks is to transfer digital traffic to and from

the home. The broadband access is much faster and reliable than the present day

dialup modem or ISDN modem. Broadband access is an always-ON connection

meaning that the user does not have to dialup for establishing the connection. The prominent broadband access technologies are the Digital Subscriber Line (xDSL), Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (HFC) network and Broadband Wireless (also called as Wireless Local Loop). The Broadband Access Provider (e.g. Cable Operator or DSL Operator) will provide Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), which will be located in the user premises. The connection to the outside world from the Home is through this equipment. The management of the CPE will be taken care of remotely by the Broadband Access Provider. Figure 4, Summarizes the various broadband technologies (Source: Cahners Instat group) Figure4: Summarizes Various Broadband Technologies In-Home Network topologies Home network is a collection of elements that process, manage, transport, and store information, enabling the connection and integration of multiple computing, control monitoring, and communication devices with in the home. Moving the bits around the home is the function of Network infrastructure and equipment that comprise the Home Network. Home Network must support multiple data types with high security, easy configuration, low cost, and negligible maintenance. Based on the topology alternative available, the in-home networks can be classified as shown in the Figure 5: Wired home networks - Use of existing home wiring & New wiring alternatives Wireless home networks CE No need of any wires new or old Figure 5: Home Network Topologies y Type Speed Advantages Dis-advantages Residential Gateway When different networks are joined (in this case the Home Network and the Broadband Access Network), a gateway must perform the functions of media translation, address translation, authentication/filtering and system management. One of the architectural options under consideration to perform these functions in the home is called the Residential Gateway (RG).Over a period of time, how ever many other intelligent Consumer Premises Equipment like the Advanced Digital Set-top Box, the Home PC, Cable/DSL Modem, Proprietary Home Automation and Control Equipment etc. could evolve to perform the role of a Residential Gateway (Figure-6). Figure 6: Forms of Residential Gateway It is clear that making the broadband available does not achieve much unless the bandwidth available is tapped to provide services to the customer. A Services Gateway (SG) is a device through which multiple services can be delivered over Wide Area Networks to the Local Area Networks and devices situated in the home. The Services Gateway provides a focal point for service providers to deliver services to devices on the home network client A Home residential gateway, which provides the basic functionality of media matching between the broadband access network and the in-home network can function as a service gateway, by conforming to the OSGi framework. Figure 8: OSGi Framework OSGi (Open Services Gateway Initiative) is a consortium of over 30 companies working on the development of open standards and specifications for the services gateway. The services gateway can enable, consolidate, and manage voice, data, Internet, and multimedia communications to and from the home, office and other locations. The services gateway can also function as an application server for a range of high value services such as energy management and control, safety and security services, health care monitoring services, device control and maintenance, electronic commerce services and more. Device access protocols As the number of smart devices increased they starting using the network to share each other services. This was enabled by the Coordination protocol that they followed. Various industry leaders evolved different Coordination protocols, which enabled the devices to discover and use each other’s capabilities. JINI (Java based device discovery and device coordination protocol pioneered by Sun Microsystems), UPnP (Universal Plug and Play pioneered by Microsoft) and HAVi (Home Audio Video Interoperability pioneered by the consumer electronic industry leaders) are some of the popular protocol available now. Device coordination essentially means providing a subset of the following capabilities to a device: Ability to announce its presence to the network. Automatic discovery of devices in the neighborhood and even those located remotely. Ability to describe its capabilities as well as query/understand the capabilities of other devices. Self-configuration without administrative intervention. Seamless inter-operability with other devices wherever meaningful. 4. Challenges for Home Networking Infrastructure reuse Technological Options for Home networking should re-use the existing wiring infrastructure of the home (i.e. electric lines, phone extension sockets etc.) or use wireless mode of communication. People may not like to dig their walls for the sake of rewiring the home or people may not like dangling wires everywhere in the home. Low Cost Home networking solutions should be of less cost. When the cost of the domestic appliances like TV; Fridge etc. are not more a few hundred dollars, the residential users may not be willing to pay more for the networking infrastructure and solutions. Simplicity Home networking, products, solutions should be very easy to use. Since the residential user may not be computer/IT literate, the technologies should be as consumer friendly as possible. This challenge is a  positive point for the consumer electronics companies (unlike the traditional Computer and Networking majors) who know the real pulse of the residential consumer. Reliability Home networking products should be very reliable, since they need to operate round the clock. In the view of the consumer, the home networking products are just like a protocol should also be highly secure and tamper proof. Ease of installation & Maintenance The home networking solutions should be easy to install (just a plug and play) and should facilitate the remote maintenance of the equipment from the vendor site. Currently, an average of two and a half telephone service calls are required to answer customer installation questions for new consumers of Internet services. If a service call takes 10 minutes and the telephone support labor costs the service provider $1.50 per minute, then the customer support calls cost about $37.50. This is roughly the cost of a two-month subscription for Internet service. Technical support of customers is a large factor in why residential-based Internet service has not been a profitable business to date. Auto configuration will be key in making RBB (Residential Broad Band) services profitable enough to be an attractive business proposition. Distance Requirement The Home Network should cover all parts of the home and premises. Of course, some homes are bigger than others, and greater distances pose problems of power, attenuation, and installation cost. Isochronous Traffic The Home networking products, solutions & technologies should be capable of carrying isochronous traffic, and should provide the required Quality of Service Guarantees. This is primarily because the residential users would like to use the multimedia equipment like, HDTV (High Definition Television), DVDs (Digital Versatile Disks), Digital video, HiFi Virtual Reality Games, etc. in tandem with traditional voice (telephone) & data (PC) services. Interoperability Since there are multitude of home networking products, technologies, and solutions from different vendors the issue of interoperability is a big challenge. This should be effectively dealt by forming industry associations, consortiums and working groups that come together and make this a reality. 5. Conclusion The latest advances in the Internet access technologies, the dropping of PC rates, and the proliferation of smart devices in the house, have dramatically increased the number of intelligent devices in the consumer premises. The home networking requirement introduces into the market a new breed of products called Residential Gateways. A Residential Gateway (RG) will provide the necessary connectivity features to enable the consumer to exploit the advantages of a networked Home. The RG will also provide the framework for Residential Connectivity Based Services to reach the home. The paper further discusses Challenges for Home Networking and Home Networking Technologies.