New ITU wired home network ‘unification standard’ to reach Canadians next year

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has approved a new global standard for next-generation wired home networks, meaning the technology could reach Canadian homes by next year. The new standard, called G.hn, was adopted by all 191 member-countries of the ITU’s telecommunication branch during a meeting Friday in Geneva, Switzerland. G.hn technology allows the transmission of data to the home through coaxial cable, standard phone wires and power lines with speeds reaching up to 1 Gb per second. The standard would allow, for example, a set-top box to be connected to the Internet through a power line if there is no Ethernet connection. According to an ITU release, the new standard will allow service providers to deploy more cost-effective high-definition television (HD TV) and Internet protocol television (IPTV). G.hn will also allow home consumer electronics—for home entertainment, home automation and home security—to more easily connect to networks. Following the ITU’s announcement, semi-conductor suppliers Kawasaki Microelectronics America Inc., TangoTec DS2, Ikanos Communications, Intel Corporation, Lantiq, Sigma Designs, and Texas Instruments lined up in support of the standard. Matt Keowen, a senior director at Ikanos and co-chair of the marketing work group at HomeGrid Forum, a global non-profit trade group that works within the ITU to encourage G.hn adoption and utilization, said G.hn went through the standardization process quickly, taking four years from development to the market. He said the semi-conductor devices used to adapt legacy infrastructure for G.hn-based devices will reach the North American market by this year’s fourth quarter. The deployment of G.hn-standardized technology is two-fold: the infrastructure must first be made compatible; second, the appliances must be manufactured to comply with the technology. “First you get the semi-conductors out, you start working with the system manufacturers, and we expect the to hit the market mid next year. Let’s say Q2,” Keowen said. Kim Lewis, a program manager at Intel and also co-chair of HomeGrid’s marketing work group, said it may take three to five years to become widespread in households. Duncan Stewart, technology, media and telecommunications director of research for Deloitte Canada, said he is skeptical that G.hn will be used by consumers. “The news that the ITU has announced a new standard is not as meaningful as it might seem, because there are, in the 20, 30, 40 years … dozens, if not hundreds, of standards that have been announced, and 10 per cent of them have seen widespread adoption,” he said. Stewart added that G.hn technology may take a backseat to wireless technologies such as WiFi. “For an awful lot of Canadians, we are going to continue to have WiFi networks in our homes, not wired. In other words, the odds of this particular standard being adopted in Canada, or anywhere in the world, are less than 100 per cent,” he said. “If in five years, 10 per cent of Canadians use it, that would in fact be probably a bit of an upside surprise … If I already have a WiFi router in my house for wireless devices that don’t connect to any , why would I want a secondary system?” Stewart said he expects the new standard to be used in new homes and offices. But CABA president and CEO Ron Zimmer, president and CEO of the Ottawa-based Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA), which is working with HomeGrid, said the standard is practical for already built homes. “It would be something that would really be welcomed in North America, because we have such an existing building stock: homes that are already built, and instead of retrofitting them with some new technology … we can actually make use of existing wiring that’s already in the wall,” Zimmer said. Zimmer said that G.hn presents an advantage for device manufacturers. Before the introduction of the standard, manufacturers had to choose whether appliances could connect to either coaxial, phone or electrical wires. Now they will have universal connections to all three. Zimmer added that G.hn is drawing interest from Canadian industry players. “There has certainly been a strong interest in the companies that have been engaged, whether you are a company that traditionally offers set-top boxes, telcos and cablecos. is something that will be an advantage to them because now they can offer additional services,” he said. Jim Slevimsky, director of technology information at Telus Corp., said the company is interested in adopting the standard to help drive its Internet protocol television (IPTV) service. “We have been watching the standards in home networking for several years, and we feel that G.hn, as a unification standard, is the first one that addresses our ability to do broadband carriage over multiple, different media in the home,” he said. “We need to have a high enough performance medium in the house, with enough flexibility to install IPTV.” Another standard, G.hnem (energy management) is also in the works, and will first be deployed through smart power meters for utilities, Lewis said. “There’s also a big push for appliances, like your refrigerator and dishwasher, and even security applications.” One possible application for G.hnem technology put forward by Lewis is electric vehicles. She said that the technology could be used to authenticate a consumer’s identity at charging stations to ensure the correct person is billed. The technology would also allow users to access printouts and account information. Industry Canada spokeswoman Laurie Ehrenworth told The Wire Report that Canada supports the ITU’s decision, saying the deployment of G.hn standards will support transceivers for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), plug-in electrical vehicles (PEV) and various home energy management applications. kfournier@thewirereport.ca

New ITU wired home network ‘unification standard’ to reach Canadians next year

News | June 14, 2010

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