Home Networking

ABSTRACT
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 Device, 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
 Figure 7: Residential Service Delivery

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.

References
1. Residential Broadband CE George Abe CE Cisco Press
2. Network Protocols for the Home CE John Canosa CE Published in Embedded.com
Magazine
3. The emerging market for Home Networking Technology and Services, Cahners
Instat Group, Feb 2000