Mike Wilson, 24 July 210

According to NPA Conseil, the proportion of TV’s in France with the potential to connect to the internet is expected to grow from 5% in 2010 to 18% in 2012. The growth is fuelled by demand for Internet-TV, on-demand TV and Internet radio.

According to NPAC “The new dynamics represent both a threat and an opportunity for the development of the media business. The biggest winners with the arrival of connected TV will [be] non-linear services, like VOD and catch-up TV”

France leads the world in the adoption of powerline technologies for IPTV and connectivity of broadband in the home. It is no coincidence that the high satisfaction rates for in-home powerline connectivity are being translated into high growth rates for web-enabled TVs.

http://www.rapidtvnews.com/index.php/201007217160/quarter-of-french-tvs-connected-by-2012.html#ixzz0uUihDGHi

Michael Wilson, 08 June 2010

According to UK-based research firm Point Topic, in 2009, the global number of IPTV subscribers hit 33 million, up 47% on the year. All major regions saw significant growth as operators and internet service providers continued to convert broadband customers to television subscribers. Europe continues to lead in adoption, with France on its own accounting for 8 million subscribers. In US, subscriber numbers grew to 5.6 million. China, South Korea and Japan all grew substantially.

Details of the report can be found at http://point-topic.com/content/bmm/profiles/Consumer_Value_Added_services_2009.html

Michael Wilson, 14 April 2010

The IEEE has confirmed that the 1901 powerline communications standard has achieved sponsor ballot approval at the first attempt. This is a major achievement and confirms widespread industry support for the adoption of the standard. The next step in the process is to address comments received during the sponsor ballot and incorporate any relevant changes in to the final specification.

Following hard on the heels of the sponsor ballot result, Homeplug confirmed plans to augment the HomeplugAV certification program to include IEEE 1901’s ISP (inter-system protocol) coexistence mechanism. The updated certification program will be available by end May. Expect certified P1901-compliant silicon and product solutions to be available by summer.

IEEE is the pre-eminent standards development organization for communications and networking technologies. 1901 takes its place alongside 802.3 (Ethernet); 802.11 (WiFi); 802.16 (WiMax); 802.15.1 (Bluetooth); and 80.15.4 (Zigbee).

Michael Wilson, 22 March 2010

Earlier this month IMS Research conducted a survey of home coaxial cable infrastructure in four European countries.

The survey showed that approximately 25% of homes in UK and France have three or more coaxial outlets, with around 55% having two or more outlets. The figures for Poland are slightly higher and the figures for The Netherlands slightly lower. The survey does not report on the location of the coaxial outlets and their proximity (or otherwise) to entertainment equipment clusters.

If the figures are representative of Europe in general, they suggest that coax-based home networking has potential to serve as an access extension technology, but the low number of outlets rules it out as an all-embracing home networking technology.

Why not combine coaxial cable outlets, where they exist, with powerline networking? Leveraging both coax and powerline at the same time can maximise overall network coverage and bring the network to every power socket. Then add WiFi and everything is covered.

More information on the IMS Research survey (conducted on behalf of the Multimedia over Coax Alliance) see http://www.iptv-news.com/iptv_news/march_2010_1/significant_addressable_market_for_coax_in_europe

Michael Wilson, 20 January 2010

If the buzz technology at the Consumer Electronics Show this year was 3D TV, the most interesting announcements following the show have centred on home energy management.

Last year we saw the introduction Google’s PowerMeter, a web based utility which provides consumers with detailed feedback on how much energy they are using. Also, Microsoft began partnering with utilities in US to offer its Hohm application, enabling consumers to access billing information and providing recommendations for power efficiency.

The latest behemoths to enter the fray are Apple and Intel. Last week it was unveiled that Apple has filed two patents in the area of device power control, using powerline networking to share data between devices. At the same time, Intel announced its Intelligent Home Energy Management Atom-based platform, which provides a central dashboard enabling consumers to be proactive about energy management.

These utilities and applications have at least one thing in common. They can all use powerline networking to connect devices together and efficiently control energy consumption.

Google Powermeter

Microsoft Holm

Apple Power Control

Intel Intelligent Home Energy Management

Michael Wilson, 11 December 2009

In a feat which stands comparison with many of Tom Cruise’s exploits in Mission Impossible, the IEEE P1901 working group stormed its way through the >3,000 comments received on 1901 Draft Standard V1.0 in less than four months. In order to rigorously assess and disposition each comment the industry’s experts, who make up the four sub-groups charged with addressing comments, have been holding many hours of discussion every week. At the working group meeting held in Tel Aviv, 6-10 December 2009, the final comments were resolved to the satisfaction of the group 75% supermajority, paving the way for the final steps in the completion of the standard, sponsor ballot approval and publication, to take place next year. At that point, for the first time, the industry will have an international open standard for powerline communications, a sister-standard to the highly successful 802.11 family of wireless technologies.

Reflecting the diligence applied through the comment resolution process the group decided that the 1901 Draft Standard V2.0 was of sufficient quality and robustness to be published for purchase from IEEE. The appropriate internal procedures are under way and the Draft Standard is expected to be made available at the beginning of January.

The working group also decided to clear up some confusion regarding the scope of the standard, confirming the applicability of P1901 to smart grid products requiring low bit rate and low power consumption as well as home multimedia networking and broadband access products.

Further details can be found in the IEEE meeting report here: http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/1901/

Michael Wilson

Kurt Scherf, Parks Associates Principal Analyst has been listening to the views of European Service Providers on home networking technologies.

The European telcos are leaders in the adoption of powerline technologies for IPTV deployments. Connect from home gateway to set top box, self install, no new wires, simple and easy. It works.

HomeplugAV is by far the most widely adopted powerline technology for IPTV today. In Kurt’s words “I do not think that the G.hn effort will fully succeed until they take into account HomePlug and build in some compatibility with it” I agree. Those service providers who wish to deploy G.hn but avoid the service calls from customers complaining that their network suddenly doesn’t work when they add HomePlug AV products from retail will request G.hn combined with HomePlug AV.

The article can be found here http://www.thestandard.com/news/2009/10/15/g-hn-home-network-standard-progresses

Michael Wilson

as published in EDN on October 21st 2009

In the year since my original post to this blog, “Setting the standard in wireline home networking“, our industry has devoted many engineer-hours to progressing the wireline home networking standards currently in development. Now that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, it is time to turn our attention from setting the standard to delivering it.

First: an administrative point. In this post, I represent my own thoughts and opinions. I am not representing the views of the industry groups and standards groups mentioned. Next: a recap. The wireline home networking industry wisely concluded a few years back that a SDO (standards development organisation)-endorsed standard was a necessary prerequisite to the mass market, and that proprietary solutions were condemned. A project was established in IEEE to develop a standard for in-home and broadband access powerline communications. A little later, a question was established in ITU-T to develop a Recommendation for home networking over coaxial cable, powerline and phone lines. Now fast forward three years.

The IEEE P1901 working group sets a high bar for decision making. A 75% majority of participating entities is required to make any significant decision. The original composition of the group often meant that stalemate was inevitable. Then the Homeplug Powerline Alliance (of which my company, Gigle Semiconductor, is a board member) and Panasonic decided to merge proposals to move forward. Around a year ago, when arbitrary entities with no obvious knowledge or interest in powerline communications started to attend meetings with the intent of effecting decision making, the IEEE hierarchy stepped in and introduced a revised and fairer set of rules requiring meeting participants to understand the project, be competent enough to make technical judgements, and regularly participate. As a result the engineers are back, the marketeers, politicians and expensive standards-consultants have gone, and the arbitrary entities are no longer eligible to attend. Copies of Roberts Rules of Order, previously compulsory reading, are conspicuous by their absence. The net impact has been a year of positive discussion, refining and maturing the standard, with all substantive decisions being passed by the group supermajority with a like mind.

In December of last year, the group voted to approve the IEEE 1901 Baseline Standard. At this time the working group, looking at activities taking place in ITU-T, introduced a placeholder for a potential 3rd “G.hn compatible” {HY (physical layer) in order to allow for its inclusion in 1901, in the event that the G.hn activity incorporated capabilities for access applications. In the opinion of some, however, this augmentation rendered the standard somewhat irrelevant, and it was subject to justified criticism as a “3 PHY monster”. In July, the Draft Standard was approved. At the subsequent meeting this October in Boston, the group’s technical experts concluded that the G.hn activity did not incorporate the required access requirements, and the group voted to remove the placeholder for the third PHY. In addition to that, the group made substantive progress in resolving comments received on the Draft Standard, and is in very good shape to move forward to the final steps of Sponsor Ballot and (finally) publication. Suddenly, IEEE 1901 is back on the map again. Two PHYs works (for example: IEEE 802.11 a, b). Three is a crowd.

Meanwhile over at ITU-T, Study Group 15 Question 4 (Q4) has been progressing on its G.hn work. Here, decisions are made by consensus and while this can, on occasion, be a lower threshold than the 75% required by IEEE, it does have the benefit of allowing pragmatic decisions to be taken in the best interests of group progress. The G.hn companion industry group, the HomeGrid Forum (Gigle is a Promoter Member), has evolved considerably over the last year, adding Best Buy, British Telecom, Sigma Designs and Coppergate to the Board of Directors. In addition, AT&T has lent its muscle to the cause with vocal support and participation in joint webinars. It has been widely reported that Q4 had been targeting to achieve consent of the complete G.hn specification this year, but it did not make sufficient progress. The group did approve the PHY that had been consented in December 2008, but the MAC, the Data Link Layer and an amendment to the PHY were not consented, rather they are placed in “Q4 determination”; in layman’s terms, this means ‘not cast in stone but can only be changed to correct a technical error”.

While all this has been going on, the SIGs (special interest groups) are not standing still. MoCA is creating MoCA2, which aims to secure its position as the defacto standard in RF coax in North America and take it further afield. HomePlug is creating HomePlug AV2 which targets higher levels of coverage and throughput on powerline, and HomePlug GP (“green PHY”) for smart grid applications; both new initiatives are fully interoperable with Homeplug AV.

At the same time, the market has seen two major structural changes. The first is the entry of top-tier silicon vendors into the powerline communications space. With Atheros’ acquisition of Intellon and its implied admission that WiFi on its own is not enough for home entertainment networking, the phrase of the moment is “HomePlug is the new WiFi.” STMicroelectronics has also announced its intent to enter the HomePlug/IEEE 1901 market. Secondly, and equally important, is that HomePlug AV has become a multivendor standard with certified silicon available from two vendors (Intellon/Atheros and Gigle) and with others in the pipeline. HomePlug is currently holding its first HomePlug AV / IEEE 1901 silicon interoperability plugfest. These evolutions considerably reduce supply chain risk and will help to deliver the standard…

…which brings me to the main point of this post. Setting a standard is one thing. Delivering it is quite another. A standard only exists when there are at least two certified product vendors. Otherwise, it is simply an interesting piece of paper. In the rush to applaud the consent of G.hn and the approval of the IEEE 1901 Baseline last December, we had some rather optimistic announcements of silicon availability from some. The claims of first silicon by the end of 2009 have proven to be somewhat unfounded. In any case, who cares about first silicon? It is an indeterminate milestone between a written specification and a certified interoperable product. The only milestones that truly matter are when a standard has a proven compliance and interoperability certification program at when there are at least two certified interoperable products. Watch this space.

As I predicted in my previous post, it looks like the current standards initiatives are likely to take us a step closer to the ultimate goal of a single unified standard, but we will need another consolidation step to finally get there. Today there are seven notable non-interoperable pseudo-standards for wireline home networking. When IEEE 1901 and ITU-T G.hn are complete we will have three – HomePlug / IEEE 1901; MoCA and G.hn. From a market adoption standpoint the options for silicon vendors are becoming clear. Powerline products will need to support several standards. HomePlug AV / IEEE 1901 and HomePlug GP will dominate retail, consumer and smart energy markets. G.hn combined with HomePlug AV will be required for those service providers who wish to deploy G.hn but avoid the service calls from customers complaining that their network suddenly doesn’t work when they add HomePlug AV products from retail. HomePlug AV2 will be required for those service providers who want to provide an interoperable path forward for their existing HomePlug AV customers.