HomeGrid Forum

Broadband Forum and HomeGrid Forum Reach Definitive Collaboration Agreement

Last week, more than 190 countries approved G.hn as the universal technology for delivering content across all wires. This week,HomeGrid Forum announced today the signing of an agreement with Broadband Forum, the consortium of approximately 200 leading telecommunications service providers, network equipment manufacturers, and software companies driving broadband wireline solutions around the world. As part of this agreement, the two organizations will collaborate to deliver to the market, later this year, a global compliance and interoperability testing program for products using G.hn technology – ITU-T’s unified wired home networking standard.

“The Broadband Forum has 15 years of interoperability experience, and our work spans from the core to the user. In our Connected Home Initiative, work has always supported various LAN technologies, and this collaboration is a natural outgrowth of our focus on supporting industry standards that allow for seamless networking of content throughout the home,” said Robin Mersh, COO of the Broadband Forum.

There's significant momentum behind G.hn.  And the Broadband Forum's support further validates the potential of G.hn products.

DS2 Demos First G.hn Prototypes, Delivers Dramatic Performance at CES 2010

The CES video buzz continues this morning with a headline in the SF Chronicle "Videoconferencing for the masses."  These are not the video conference calls of yesteryear with highly pixelated, choppy low resolution images. No, these are high definition video calls.  Cisco, Panasonic and a number of other companies demonstrated the technology this week. Still others showcased 3D television. And Gartner analyst Van Baker rightly points out, "It's a very compelling experience but it takes a whole lot of bandwidth."

The next-generation wired networking technology G.hn created some buzz of its own at CES, demonstrating how it can solve the bandwidth problem created by the continuing evolution of interactive and IP-based video. Courtesy of HomeGrid Forum and DS2, the first G.hn semiconductors capable of delivering the performance and quality of service necessary for high-definition video and video conferencing were demonstrated. 

These prototypes provided throughput of 4X to 5X over current generations of wired networking technologies over all media -- phoneline, powerline and coax cable. The improvements over existing products were nothing short of dramatic. Reactions from service providers, PC manufacturers and others were also dramatic. Comments ranged from "this is exactly what we're looking for, we're tired of multiple approaches for home networking" to "how quickly can we get products."

This demonstration marks another milestone towards production silicon later this year.

$7 billion by 2013

iSuppli analyst Steve Rago has done an exceptional amount of research into the digital home and broadband markets.  I just recently came across his latest on wired home networking.  In the report, he predicts the market will grow to some $7 billion in value and 500 million units.

According to Rago, "The connected home is coming. But how do we get there? The managed home network needs wired solutions. Wireless, such as WiFi, cannot meet the quality of service or the bandwidths necessary to support real-time multi-media traffic in the connected home."  Here, here Steve. We couldn't have said it any better ourselves.