Home networking is one of the fastest-paced and largest potential markets in electronics, not due to home automation, but driven by information services offered through Internet, interactive TV, and advanced telephone services. A standardized home local area network (Home LAN) implemented in the right way will pave the way to enormous business and technical opportunities. Internet will penetrate homes, and using Internet protocols all the way to the home as well as inside the home, represents an attractive enabling solution for generalized home networking. Next-generation Internet protocols will support the required additional functionality like control operations, quality of service, streaming media distribution (isochronous service), and mobile communications.
This report sketches the current home networking environment and derives essential architectural requirements. It contains relevant market figures and describes prospective services to be supported together with their communications requirements. The report then characterizes the most important enabling technologies and gives a list of programs and initiatives pursued in the home networking arena. Following a few concluding remarks, an Appendix with restricted distribution outlines three research areas aiming at different aspects of home networking: Technology enhancement, proof of concept for a candidate architecture, and product prototyping.
By: Dietrich Maiwald and Wolfgang Schott
Published in: RZ3014 in 1998
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