- Not Now, Maybe Later
G.hn (HomeGrid) and HPNA will not be included in the P1905.1 project authorization request (PAR), according to IEEE. P1905 is intended to be an easy-to-implement communications bridge that’s intended to make hybrid home networks, wired and wireless, easier to set up and manage. Pay-TV service providers like it because it reduces installation and support costs for deployment of IPTV and OTT video services. Consumers will like it because it includes Wi-Fi. At IEEE - Standard Association (IEEE - PA), the PAR defines the scope of the document.
Last week, the IEEE’s Communications Society Standard Board passed the following motion:
“Move to disapprove the P1905.1 PAR change request in view of procedural error on the part of the WG [working group] during the December meeting.”
IEEE said that as a result, the PAR change to include G.hn will not be submitted to the IEEE-SA Standards Board for ratification.
IEEE said this only means that G.hn will not be listed in the PAR, which says:
“...The abstraction layer provides a common data and control Service Access Point to the heterogeneous home networking technologies described in the following specifications: IEEE P1901, IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.3 and MoCA 1.1. The standard is extendable to work with other home networking technologies...”
G.hn was not included in the original P1905.1 PAR.
Because P1905.1 is not yet a completed standard, it cannot be extended at this point. To be included later, the G.hn group and any other network standard must make a specific contribution to the initial draft. This could be accepted by the P1905.1 working group but only with a two-thirds approval vote.
It seems like a very tiny area in which to work.
IEEE also said, “As per approved Operating Procedures, any future PAR change request requires 75% approval by the Working Group.”
An overview of the P1905.1 PAR can be found at the link https://mentor.ieee.org/802.../11-11-0157-00-0000-p1905-1-introduction.ppt
G.hn members are expected to protest the moves. Some do not think that G.hn or any other networking technology can be excluded from P1905.1 at this point.
IEEE said it’s certain that G.hn will not be included in the PAR, which defines the scope of the project at this time. At some future point, the working group could pass a motion with a 75% approval to include it. Contributions that address G.hn functionality can be made to the draft, and each contribution will require a two-thirds approval vote to be accepted. That’s because there’s a line in the PAR that states that the standard is extendable to other home networking technologies.
Members of the P1905.1 Convergent Digital Home Network Working Group are:
•Atheros
•Broadcom
•Cisco
•Entropic Communications
•France Telecom
•HD-PLC
•HomeGrid Forum
•HomePlug
•HomePNA Alliance
•Intel
•Lantiq
•Marvell
•MoCA
•Panasonic
•Ralink Technology
•Sagemcom
•Sigma Designs
•SPiDCOM Technologies
•STMicroeletronics
•Toshiba Research Europe
•Verizon
The target date for P1905.1 compliant products is not known or even speculated on.
However, chipmaker Qualcomm Atheros, a P1905 member, is headed in that direction. It said at CES that networking vendors such as Netgear will have hybrid networking products that combine Atheros Wi-Fi, HomePlug powerline and Ethernet technologies to ensure networked devices can connect anywhere in the home. It did not include MoCA, perhaps because MoCA appeals mainly to pay-TV service providers at this point, not to retailers.
Atheros said, “The IEEE recently began work on the P1905.1 specification, which provides a common interface between powerline, Wi-Fi, Ethernet and MoCA products. By facilitating communication and cooperation between wired and wireless technologies, P1905.1 will not only improve the performance of home networks, but will also make them much easier for consumers to install and use.”
Broadcom is sure to be in the hunt too. In addition it has MoCA technology that it’s using now in broadband/home networking products.
Any company or entity that has an IEEE-SA Advanced Corporate membership and pays the working group services fee can join a P1905.1 working group. In order to vote, however, they must attend two consecutive meetings. Working group members can send as many people to a meeting as they want, but the company only gets one vote.
The Impact
The most significant impact, we think, is that HomePlug and MoCA get an easy, inexpensive and standardized way to add Wi-Fi to chipsets and perhaps chips and then to STBs. That’s important because of the rapid spread of smart TVs and Blu-ray players. Many, including The Online Reporter, expect that 80% of TVs sold by 2016 will be smart TVs.
The pairing of HomePlug and MoCA does not seem especially beneficial. A case can be made that combining them in an STB will reduce the cost and complications for service providers that want to offer both. However, most providers offer one or the other but want to add Wi-Fi to the mix for the smart-TV generation. We have said that the pay-TV services will have to offer OTT TV in their STBs to attract the younger generation. They will, however, have to figure out a business case for it or it will cost them.
G.hn’s exclusion from the P1905.1 spec could have serious implications. The most obvious one is in marketing. How does G.hn compete against all those smart TVs and Blu-ray players that have “P1905.1 Inside,” or whatever they end up calling it, stamped on their cartons and sales displays?
G.hn could get around the exclusion by adding Wi-Fi to its chipsets and chips, although that won’t make them compatible with HomePlug and MoCA. However, a company like Sigma Designs, which has both G.hn and HomePlug technology, could develop a G.hn chipset that includes both.
The exclusion of G.hn from P1905.1 is a win for the HomePlug and MoCA crowd. A completed P1905.1 spec will be a win for consumers and service providers because of the Wi-Fi inclusion. The P1905.1 intro paper said its objectives are:
- End-to-end QoS across all multiple types of networks
- Simplified user experience
- Single network management for all networks
- Single “secure” association for all networks
The exclusion doesn’t doom G.hn, but it makes the road ahead a lot more difficult. Helping G.hn is that AT&T joined the HomeGrid Forum this week. (See separate story.)
What the G.hn crowd has to do now is concentrate on getting products to market and showing that it’s superior in real-world performance to HomePlug. The coax market appears to have been won by MoCA, and it’s probably too late for another entry.
We suspect that the matter of excluding G.hn from P1905.1 is not finished. At the very least we expect the G.hn group to add support for the P1905.1 standard, perhaps by creating a standard in ITU that equals P1905.1 with a G.hn-specific spec. This could be done at the same time as P1905.1 is being developed. In any case, the pay-TV service providers want wireless, and G.hn will have to add Wi-Fi.
The specter of what Quantenna is doing with Wi-Fi looms over their business plans. Doing it so as to be compatible with P1905.1 makes a lot of sense.
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