HomePNA Blog

Verizon FiOS Tweets The Home Network

By Rich Nesin, General Manager and Resident Philosopher, HomePNA

Verizon is certainly making points with FIOS TV. Even though they basically provide cable TV over fiber and not IPTV, Verizon does install a, shall we say, non-HomePNA existing wire home network (OK, so it’s MOCA) when they deploy FIOS TV. Inside the home TV programs are carried over the coax as though they were provided by a cable company – which is to say without using IP. Verizon does use IP and the home network for VoD; and now for other stuff too.

As we blogged back in March, Verizon has officially announced some major new additions to its FiOS TV' service - the Widget Bazaar applications store, which includes a Facebook widget, a Twitter widget, and Internet Video on TV. Verizon also plans to have an open development platform so the hordes of programmers churning out Apple iPhone widgets can also write interactive FIOS applications made available through a widget bazaar (similar to the Apple App store - although I understand the offerings will be more controlled). And don't expect them to be clones of the applications you run on your PC or smart phone.

So add these to your over-the–top TV pleasures courtesy of IP and a home network: Twitter, Facebook, ESPN Fantasy Football and.... You'll find them in your FIOS TV Interactive Media Guide. So Tweet your most profound thoughts about the deep reality show you are watching. And Verizon says they will be releasing its Software Development Kit (SDK) soon so stay tuned for dozens more applications.

Why DOCSIS isn't the first choice worldwide

By Richard Nesin, president, HomePNA

The big HomePNA news this week (and I hope you read Monday’s blog so you know what I am talking about) was CopperGate’s announcement about the Shanghai Engineering Research Center for Broadband Technologies & Application (B-STAR) selecting HomePNA-based technology as its primary solution for its Multi Dwelling Unit (MDU) interactive Digital TV test program in Shanghai. Why didn’t they select DOCSIS like so many other cablecos? In a word, cost. HomePNA technology combined with fiber to the premises (FTTP) gave them the right mix of performance and features without the large price tag.

First, a little background on DOCSIS. The Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification or DOCSIS is an international standard developed by CableLabs, the cablecos’ R&D consortium. DOCSIS, like HomePNA, is an ITU standard although the work is done in Study Group 9 (SG 9) and is completely independent of the G.hn and HomePNA home networking standardization work being done in SG15.

DOCSIS defines the protocol for high-speed data transfer over an existing Cable TV system. The killer application, needless to say, is Internet access and there are a large number of DOCSIS cable modems sold worldwide (especially in North America). The first DOCSIS specification was released over 10 years ago. The most recent version, DOCSIS 3, adds support for IP – that is to say Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) - to the standard. Multiple versions of DOCSIS exist around the globe such as EuroDOCSIS to comply with differences in regional standards. CableLabs and other organizations perform DOCSIS equipment certification testing on a regular basis.

DOCSIS equipment consists of the cable modem installed in your home and a cable modem termination system (CMTS) located at the cableco’s “headend”. It’s not cheap for an MDU. A DOCSIS cable modem has to be installed in each apartment and connected to it’s corresponding port on the CMTS over the cableco’s coax/fiber (called HFC for hybrid fiber-coax) cabling. The CMTS connects the customer’s DOCSIS modem to the Internet.

For those of you who (like me) had early DOCSIS 1.0 modems that required a phone line connection in addition to the coax connection to operate, you've probably guessed this isn’t the entire story. When I first got broadband the only option was this DOCSIS kluge (kluge is an engineering term for a less than elegant system). I had to get a second dedicated phone line (remember phone lines? They are what DSL modems use today for Internet access, VoIP and IPTV) from the phone company in order for my cable modem to work. Cablecos had to upgrade their HFC network to provide a return path for upstream traffic – data sent from your PC to the Internet – over the coax. This also costs money. While many cableco’s HFC networks have been upgraded, there are parts of the world where the technology lags.

What's it all mean?  Stay tuned for the next post.

Where else in the world is HomePNA-based technology? China MDUs.

By Richard Nesin, president, HomePNA

Anyone thats read our recent blog posts should know where HomePNA is – or at least about the continuing successes in North America. So that’s it, right? North American telcos select HomePNA, cablecos select MOCA (if they select anything at all), and the rest of the world goes with HomePlug or WiFi. Simple, clear, makes sense, and fortunately wrong.

For years editors and analysts have been asking me about other parts of the world and for years I have been pointing to wins at Sonaecom, KDDI and other telcos. With HomePNA member CopperGate’s recent announcement that The Shanghai Engineering Research Center for Broadband Technologies & Application (B-STAR) has selected HomePNA-based technology as its primary solution for its Multi Dwelling Unit (MDU) interactive Digital TV test program in Shanghai, however, the rules have changed significantly opening huge opportunities for HomePNA-based technology.

So what’s the big deal? Aside from the fact that it’s China, a relatively new market for HomePNA and a huge market opportunity estimated on the order of 100 million residences (CopperGate's release says B-Star alone expects to roll out to over 100,000 apartments initially and expand to 1 million residences by 2010), it’s a sale to cablecos. And it's access -- replacing the need for DOCSIS and similar technologies used in other parts of the world. 

 So what’s changed? Only our perceptions. More in a future post.

HomePNA Shown the Standard for TelcoTV

There is exciting news coming out of HomePNA member company CopperGate Communications, a leading provider of home networking chipsets for triple play IPTV over existing wiring. TELUS, a $9 billion Canadian national telecommunications provider, selected CopperGate’s HomePNA 3.1 technology integrated into set-top boxes and residential gateways manufactured by other HomePNA members for its TELUS TV service offering. TELUS TV is a 100 percent digital entertainment service that allows subscribers to customize their entertainment experience. With TELUS TV, customers get automatic access to TELUS Video On-Demand and can build a TV package from a list of more than 200 channels.

Now couple this news with recent findings that HomePNA was installed in more North American homes in the last quarter than any other coax home networking solution and we have even more to celebrate. “The addition of TELUS means that of the largest telcos in North America, 4 out of the top 5 that offer TelcoTV now support HomePNA 3.1 home networking technology,” noted Michael Wolf, Director of Digital Home research at ABI Research. “This win validates HomePNA as a home networking technology that is optimized for service provider rollouts to enable whole-home entertainment services such as TelcoTV.”

We believe that HomePNA has become the defacto standard for TelcoTV home networking. With industry deployments that go well beyond AT&T’s recently announced 650,000 paying U-verse subscribers, we see great growth ahead for HomePNA. What does this mean for the service providers? It means that if you’re not using HomePNA to distribute home entertainment over coax and phone you are missing out on a great market opportunity. So we encourage you to consider joining today and share in this amazing opportunity to grow right along with us! For information on membership, visit the HomePNA website.

G.hn When?

We’d like to shed light on some industry FUD surrounding the release of the G.hn standard. You may have heard about a G.hn contribution made last month by some of the bigger telephone companies. The contribution, which was adopted by the members, proposed to consent a G.hn Recommendation (ITU speak for “agree on and publish a standard”) by the end of this year. Service providers are the customers and their opinions count in Q4/15 (see the May 5 post “Who is ITU-T, what is Q4/15, and where did the “G” in G.hn come from?” See blog post. So this contribution, which also prioritized the work, carried a lot of weight – not to mention a warm feeling that the service providers are there to help keep the work on track. This standard will allow technology companies to develop G.hn chips.

After a recommendation is consented it goes through a short ITU release process and becomes an open publicly available standard. This doesn’t mean it can’t be enhanced in the future. In the ITU it is common to have addendums added later. For example, the HomePNA 3.0 spec was initially consented and released as Recommendation G.9954 in February 2005. After HomePNA released the enhanced but backward compatible 3.1 specification, Q4/15 updated G.9954 and re-released it as G.9954 Jan 2007 revision.

Intelligent Network Interface Device

Do you know what an Intelligent Network Interface Device (iNID) is? Even if you are in the home networking business you may not know the answer to that question and you wouldn’t be alone. Many technical experts don’t know what this device does and how it fits into the home networking scheme. An iNID is the common name for an outdoor residential gateway typically mounted to the side of a subscriber’s house. iNID’s are owned and installed by the service provider and come in hardened weather-resistant enclosures (the plan is for them to remain with the house when the resident moves - like a utility box).

An iNID includes either a DSL or fiber WAN interface and a home networking modem. Since it is located on the outside of the house, an iNID typically does not include a wireless LAN and instead uses the home’s existing wiring, which terminates on the outside of the house, to gain entrance. iNIDs may feature one or two integrated HomePNA modems (one connected to the phone wires and one to the coax creating two independent full speed home networks). An internal wireless access point connected to the HomePNA network can be used to provide wireless connectivity inside the house. A number of HomePNA members offer or are in the process of developing this type of product.

HomePNA member 2Wire describes their recently certified iNID technology as working like this: “By transferring intelligent gateway functions and all service and network terminations to the side of the house, the 2Wire iNID eliminates the need to bring DSL into the house, eliminating the signal loss typical of in-home wiring. The location at the side of the house, near the existing telephone Network Interface Device, also allows for an easy connection between the iNID’s integrated VoIP function and the home’s existing phone wiring. The outdoor location also provides carrier technicians with easy access to home coaxial cable wiring which can be reused to distribute high speed LAN technologies throughout the home to video set-top boxes and other networked consumer devices.” Read the full description by going to the Web site.

So next time you spot a box on the side of someone’s home it may not be the utility box. It might be that your neighbor is ahead of the curve and using the latest home networking technology to enhance their home entertainment experience.