Home network, will it work?
15 November 2008
It is increasingly common nowadays to have colleagues who hotdesk, especially field application engineers. Once, not having a desk in the office meant an employee was not fully integrated. Now, it is a sign that they are probably the most proactive and are always out seeing clients.
Similarly, it is not just a case of having a laptop. Homes can now be networked beyond the early data-centric configurations to encompass multimedia and entertainment.
The number of devices in home network configurations is expected to reach over 600million worldwide next year, with 20% of that focusing on multimedia, entertainment and storage platforms.
One technology that helps users send data around the home is Powerline, whereby data runs across cables already in the home carrying electricity, or coax cables. Powerline network adapters have an Ethernet socket so that data from various devices, such as the computer and the audio files, can be sent.
Entropic Communications’ (www.entropic.com) two CSS (channel stacking switches), the RF5218 and RF5219, use the home’s existing cable and have been specifically designed to address low-power
requirements of the European DBS (Digital Broadcast Satellite) market.
The company has been delivering CSS ICs across Europe and Asia since 2006 in multidwelling units. Entropic claims to have a single cable solution, with CSS ICs that do not require a separate cable for each tuner from the satellite dish to the set-top box, as conventional satellite installations demand. This simplifies the cabling architecture for multiple video streams from individual or multiple satellites into the
home over a single cable.
Both CSS ICs have an embedded low noise block or multi-switch and consume up to 40% less power than previous generations, says the company. They can support up to 12 tuners, with power sharing, down a single coax cable. The CSS technology also enables plug-and-play for set-top box upgrades to re-use existing cabling to establish a DBS system.
With European homes, especially in the UK where thick, brick walls can make connectivity a major building installation, the coax approach is not always the most practical.
The stumbling block is that it is still people’s home, even when used as a home office, and users are not enthralled with the idea of a ‘rat’s nest’ of cables linking electronic and electrical equipment all over the house; which is where wireless technology comes in. Wi-fi is a popular choice, as it means computers can be moved easily around the home. It is becoming a popular choice, even being likened to a utility service, as
people can log-in and have the same standard of service, whether in a wi-fi spot in the local coffee shop or in the home.
To achieve room-to-room connectivity, companies like Pulse-LINK (www.pulselink.net) are introducing UWB
(ultra wideband) connectivity devices, like the CWave platform, which allows users to stream and distribute high-speed data and high-quality multimedia content throughout a home. The chipset provides data rates at up to Gbit speeds over home coax cables wirelessly and also over electrical wires, simultaneously.
Pulse-LINK believes that this chipset is an effective use of existing coax cable as it can be used for connectivity over 1394 and IP multimedia networks, co-existing with legacy coax content and is a wireless equivalent for DVI/HDMI and 1394 connections. It can also be used to connect low latency, interactive wireless video gaming and real-time wireless PC to TV display applications.
Companies like Texas Instruments (www.ti.com) have invested in its DaVinci family, which is used in video over IP services like Thomson’s WiFi Tablet; described as an integral part of the home networking
ecosystem as it allows operators to increase the broadband services offered, with wireless IPTV around a home.
It is based on the TMS320DM6441 processor, using TI’s H.264 and MP3 digital media software and development tools and acts as a multi-room IPTV video-on-demand and broadband entertainment hub, without the need for multiple set-top boxes and cabling, or even a PC. It serves as a wireless music player and digital picture frame and also acts as a display for RSS feeds.
The DM6441 has a high level of integration to achieve this level of processing and streaming. The SoC has an ARM9 core and TMS320C64x+ DSP core with video/imaging coprocessors.
Despite the excitement of home networking for data-rich, multimedia entertainment, where it does not matter what is going on in other rooms in the house, audio and video file streaming and data transfer are uninterrupted, but there is still some sluggishness in adopting home networking, reports In-Stat. Although it is definitely spurred on by the integration of consumer electronics, the majority of homes in the USA, about 66%, use home networks to share internet access and do not have devices connected to these networks, not even PC peripherals.
The research company believes that the drive to adopt networked media devices is there, with evidence of consumers wanting digital content that is stored on PCs to be available elsewhere in the home. The worldwide market for basis media server shipments to be placed in home networks is expected to grow from 2005’s levels by 57% by 2010. In fact, In-Stat thinks that consumer education will be the key to the next phase of home networking. It believes that early adopters have been testing firstgeneration networked devices but they are still far from the average mainstream digital home, it reports. For once, perhaps business use will drive forward a technology adoption that the consumer is reluctant to embrace.
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