Moving Media Around the Digital Home

The trend toward multi-service bundling has been key for broadband service providers planning to defend their presence within the emerging digital home. However, the reality of delivering a combination of voice, data and video services to a customer’s residence also poses new financial and operational challenges for providers.

In the past, providers primarily addressed issues related to the installation and support of basic data-centric services. Today, operators must consider the complexities of a multimedia-centric home network, in which audio and video content is delivered, stored and distributed from a variety of sources to multiple locations throughout the home. Although much of the provider investments in next-generation services will continue to be external to the home, most operators recognize that supporting new media applications requires increased attention to the distribution network within the home itself, specifically, understanding what consumers typically have in place today and what they’ll need in place tomorrow.

Early adopters of home networks embraced CAT5 twisted pair media and Ethernet to get connectivity for data-centric applications, but most mainstream consumers waited until Wi-Fi certified 802.11b wireless networking products became available and affordable. Today, wireless access point users still do not always receive consistent and reliable coverage in all parts of the home. And even though the throughput may be suitable for some media applications, such as streaming audio, the network rarely provides enough bandwidth to support video of a suitable quality for mainstream viewers.

Service providers recognize the limitation of most existing wireless networks and yet must offer a TV viewing experience with at least the same—or better—quality and reliability to which consumers have become accustomed. As a result, most providers have gravitated towards wired solutions for video distribution. Twisted-pair, coax and power line wiring can provide both consistent and extended coverage to all conceivable areas of a residence, and at the preferred throughput of up to 100Mbps.

Wireless solutions, however, will not necessarily have a diminished role in the evolving digital home. In fact, most providers believe that whole-home networks inherently call for a hybrid approach, where the home network includes both wired and wireless components, and in which several home networking standards coexist.

The market for next-generation home networking infrastructure is clearly diverse, and it accommodates scenarios of new home construction, with associated new wiring, as well as established residences where networking solutions preferably require no new wires. There are also some regional differences within these two scenarios. As an example, in the U.S., “structured wiring systems” that incorporate both category 5 UTP and quad-shield coaxial cabling have become commonplace in single-family home construction. This is not the case in most other parts of the world. Most broadband service providers are either currently utilizing or evaluating one or more of the following home networking backbone international standard technologies:

• Ethernet multimedia home networking (Category-5/6 Ethernet cabling)
• Coax-based multimedia networking (MoCA, HPNAv3)
• Phone line-based multimedia home networking (HPNAv3 twisted-pair option)
• Power line-based multimedia home networking (HomePlug AV)
• Wireless multimedia home networking (WiFi 802.11n and MIMO)

According to market research firm Parks Associates, the realm of home networking is moving toward hybrid solutions—where multiple standards are embraced—for two important reasons. First, service providers and consumer electronics manufacturers hope that hybrids will deliver more reliability for high-bandwidth services. Second, hybrid networks offer consumers greater flexibility to enhance their multimedia entertainment applications.

Spencer Behroozi, director of product management for Actiontec Electronics, believes that a single home networking device which incorporates multiple standards is the answer. “Integration of all of these connectivity standards and technologies into one device will ultimately make the consumer experience better,” says Behroozi. “We’ve already integrated MoCA into our gateway. HPNA is on our roadmap, and we’re considering HomePlug as a possibility.”

According to market research firm Heavy Reading, although reducing service providers’ operating expense is a major objective for next-generation multimedia whole-home networking solutions, the reality of provisioning and managing multiple technologies, even if they are in a single device, may amount to more complexity and more money. For example, the installer benchmark for a multi-service order stubbornly rests at about four hours, or one complex IPTV installation per day. The differing installation models and security requirements for existing and emerging home networking technologies can leave consumers and even some technicians confused, reducing service provider profits even further.

Andy Melder, senior vice president of strategic business development for Intellon Corporation, believes, “The ultimate solution, for both the consumer and the service provider, is when the whole-home network interface is directly integrated into all appropriate consumer electronics devices—in the same way that Wi-Fi has become a de facto standard in laptop computers.”

Ultimately, consumers are less interested in the multitude of wired and wireless technologies that form the in-home pipe than they are in the services that run over them. And service providers must find a way to provide a consistent, service-centric user experience that doesn’t require consumers to become technical experts. Hybrid home networking models are not going away, but four-hour IPTV installations must become a thing of the past if service providers are going to realize any profits. Successful providers will find a way to abstract the complexity of home networking technologies so that consumers have zero visibility into the number of interconnections and dependencies that allow IP-based media to seamlessly move from room to room.

Heather Kirksey directs the strategy and execution of Motive’s device management and Digital Home standards initiatives, and is a member of the DSL Forum’s Board of Directors. She is also co-chair of the DSL Home-Technical Working Group.