- The Other View of the G.hn Home Network Standard
- Dueling Dual Standards May Emerge
- Is There Room for Wi-Fi?
If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.
Not everyone has jumped on the seemingly irresistible G.hn home network movement. HomePlug (Powerline) and MoCA (the coax crowd) adherents question the need for a new home network standard when, they say, between them they have the best for Powerline and coax.
To that end, the two main chipmakers for those standards, Entropic (MoCA) and Intellon (HomePlug) last week announced they are working together "to accelerate the availability of home networking solutions combining coaxial cable [MoCA] and Powerline [HomePlug] communications."
Their statement certainly does not mean they are committed to G.hn because they have fought G.hn vigorously, saying, mainly, that G.hn does not allow compatibility and interoperability with the large installed base of legacy gear that uses their technologies.
It could mean the two are developing a chipset, or better yet but less likely, a single chip that would include both of their technologies. Either would allow service providers to inventory and install one box that could work over either coax or Powerline. It would also provide an attractive alternative to G.hn, which is a long way from chip testing, much less deployment.
However, it’s very unlikely that the joint development will produce a single technology that functions over both electrical and coax wires, which is the goal of the G.hn camp.
Entropic Says Combined MoCA/HomePlug Chipset Is Not Being Developed
We asked MoCA’s leading chipmaker Entropic whether there’s any truth to our assumption that the joint announcement it made with HomePlug chipmaker Intellon would lead to development of a common chipset that supported both MoCA and HomePlug.
An Entropic spokesperson replied:
"The assumption that we [Entropic and Intellon] are jointly developing a chip is wrong.
"At this time, the collaboration is to jointly promote how existing technologies work and co-exist under the same roof. For example, if there is a home using MoCA technologies for networking, which relies on a coax connection, but one room doesn’t have a coax port, a HomePlug can be used to bridge that gap seamlessly and without interference. The companies intend to collaborate on technology roadmaps and jointly promote and demonstrate their respective technologies.
"Some key benefits of the collaboration are:
"1. Because MoCA and HomePlug can already co-exist, technology fragmentation introduced by new standards can be avoided.
"2. It provides for ubiquitous home coverage in areas of the home where coax is not present.
"3. MoCA and HomePlug support both data and media for high-performance networking.
"4. The solutions can be deployed today anywhere in the world.
"5. It supports an already existing and large installed base."
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However, it appears to us at Rider Research that MoCA-to-HomePlug adapter boxes and co-existence aren’t enough.
Without an integrated MoCA/HomePlug chipset, G.hn — with its appeal of compatibility and interoperability in one box over any of the home’s three wires, it seems to us —has the potential to overwhelm the (so far, at least) incompatible MoCA and HomePlug technologies. The major telcos may have realized that several years ago when the ITU-T, the telcos’ standards development body, began overseeing G.hn’s development.
HomePlug’s David Stowe Responds, Too
HomePlug spokesman David Stowe told us that the HomePlug Alliance agrees with Entropic’s statements, but not our conclusion.
He said G.hn proposes a co-existence scheme that he doesn’t think will give it the power to overwhelm either MOCA or HomePlug.
One thing is clear, he said, "Home networks are being pushed to the forefront by high bandwidth consumer applications (multiple streams of HD TV) and the smart grid. All of the players, utilities, service providers, and consumers will demand interoperability with a forward migration path and backward compatibility. It is also clear that Powerline will play the role of the backbone for the home network due to the fact that it has an installed cable plant with access points in all areas of the home.
"Adding Ethernet, Wi-Fi or MOCA devices to a Powerline network is as simple as plugging in a coax or CAT5 connector into a HomePlug adaptor plugged into the wall. There is no set up or configuration.
"G.hn products will ship (not sample) in mid-2011. At that time, HomePlug will be shipping HomePlug AV2 which has a 4X performance increase over the current HomePlug AV and over G.hn. It’ll be fully interoperable with the HomePlug AV version and IEEE 1901.
"HomePlug will account for about 80% of the Powerline market at that time."
Stowe said that G.hn will launch with an inferior technology that does not interoperate with anything. And he asks, "How is that a formula for success?"
Similarly, MOCA will be well into shipping its next version, MOCA 2, he said, and will have market share numbers on coax comparable to HomePlug on Powerline. [Coppergate’s HPNA competes with MoCA in the coax home network market.]
"What happens to the 120 million or so customers who have MOCA and/or HomePlug products installed at that point in time?" Stowe asks, then answers, "Simply ignoring them, as the promoters of G.hn have been doing, won’t make them go away."
Note: IEEE 1901 is a working group that’s attempting to make two of the three Powerline standards, HomePlug and Panasonic’s HDPLC, capable of operating simultaneously on the same wires.
Wireline Home Network Chip Players at a Glance
Current rankings by size of installed base:
1. Entropic’s MoCA chips (mostly at Verizon)
2. Intellon’s HomePlug (at retail and from some service providers outside the States)
3. CopperGate’s HPNA (AT&T and some smaller telcos)
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Partisans:
MoCA: Chipmakers Entropic and Broadcom plus Verizon, US cablecos and satcos.
HomePlug: Atheros’ Intellon plus current and announced HomePlug chipmakers Sigma-owned CopperGate, Gigle, SPiDCOM, STMicroelectronics, Arkados.
HPNA: Sigma’s Coppergate plus AT&T.
G.hn partisans: The Powerline chipmakers Intellon, CopperGate, DS2 and Panasonic plus Intel and some — but not all — of the world’s largest incumbent telcos.
Intel is the primary backer of the G.hn marketing and certification alliance HomeGrid.
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Looking Ahead:
- Intellon and Entropic have said they are working together to accelerate the availability of home networking solutions that combine coaxial cable [MoCA] and Powerline [HomePlug]. What that means exactly is unknown but an announcement is expected shortly. What’s needed, if G.hn meets its performance and production goals, is integration of MoCA and HomePlug at least on the same circuit board, if not in one chipset and ultimately a single chip. That’s something that the two chip makers are not talking about, at least not yet.
- An all-wires G.hn chip from Powerline chipmakers DS2 (UPA) and CopperGate (HPNA), both of which have promised G.hn chips early on. DS2 said its G.hn chipset will be interoperable with both of the prior versions of its UPA Powerline technology.
No one is talking, and it may be that no one is working on it, but a three-in-one MoCA, HomePlug, Wi-Fi chipset with technology from Atheros and its Entropic plus Intellon could be a game changer. Wi-Fi has a strong and universal appeal to consumers, although not to content owners.
- Not talking about wireline home networking is Ruckus Wireless and its super-charged Wi-Fi technology, which some telcos outside the States are using. It should be considered a contender in the home network for IPTV market, however,
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HomePlug, MoCA Point to G.hn’s Shortcomings
The two camps attack G.hn on the basis that the world does not need another standard, especially one that’s not compatible with either of the world’s most installed wireline network standards — namely theirs. They responded to the announcement that ITU-T had approved the physical (PHY) portion of the G.hn by saying:
- G.hn is not interoperable with any existing network technology. However, Powerline chip maker DS2 has said it’ll have chipsets that support G.hn and both versions of the Powerline UPA technology that its current chips use. It also promised delivery of the chipset in 2010.
- G.hn will not offer as much bandwidth as the upcoming versions of MoCA and HomePlug will by the end of 2010.
- There will probably not be any G.hn chips that device makers can use until 2011. And by then there’ll be, it’s predicted, over 100 million HomePlug and MoCA network devices already installed. MoCA marketing chief Rob Gelphman said that in addition to Verizon’s continuing deployment of MoCA gear, Comcast, Cox, Time Warner, Bright House and DirecTV have each publicly committed to using MoCA in their networks. US cablecos and satcos have 96 million pay-TV subscribers, almost all of whom are likely to get upgraded eventually to a wireline network, probably MoCA.
HomePlug, MoCA Detail G.hn’s Downside
The heads of the MoCA and HomePlug alliances responded to the hoopla that came with the report that the physical portion (PHY) of G.hn had been approved by the ITU-T. HomePlug Alliance president Rob Ranck said:
"Previously, the G.hn working group had achieved ‘consent’ for a portion of the specification, the PHY [physical] layer, called G.9660. Consent is the step before a specification is approved as a standard by the ITU country members.
"This week, the working group met to consider the remaining, larger portions of the specification, the DLL/MAC layer. However, G.hn consent did not occur. The argument that [the] specification was not sufficiently mature has prevailed.
"The ITU did approve the G.9660 PHY and consented to the G.9772 Coexistence layer earlier today. We are already seeing that that some companies and industry associations are trying to obscure the real facts of G.hn’s delay by promoting the PHY approval as newsworthy.
"But the developments this week are a significant setback for G.hn and another clear indication that the Powerline networking industry is not aligning around G.hn. The G.hn working group will meet again in January 2010 to try to again achieve the remaining consent.
"As the leader in retail and service provider shipments in the US and Europe, HomePlug will continue to try to reach a compromise with G.hn supporters to support backward interoperability with HomePlug AV as the best choice for customers.
"Additionally, beginning in June 2009, AT&T and other G.hn supporters began to submit contributions to try to align G.hn capabilities with smart grid requirements. But after discussion this week:
"- The G.hn working group did not agree to include a number of criteria that would form the basis of a smart grid device/profile. There were too many objections to achieve consensus.
"- The group did not agree to include an informative appendix describing how a G.hn smart grid device could be configured.
"- The group did not agree to accept a normative annex describing smart grid.
"What this means is that given the typical lead-times to develop a complex high-speed networking chip, we believe that the earliest that certified G.hn products could ship is mid-2011.
"HomePlug has now shipped over 35 million units and represents 75% of the worldwide market for Powerline. Four vendors — CopperGate, Gigle, Intellon and SPiDCOM — are currently shipping or sampling HomePlug AV chips, and two more — STMicroelectronics and Arkados — have announced chips.
"We expect that work on the HomePlug AV2 specification will be completed in Q1 2010. This will facilitate AV2 chips sampling in late 2010 or early 2011. HomePlug AV2 will have full backward compatibility and interoperability with HomePlug AV and IEEE 1901. Our smart energy version, HomePlug GP ["green" PHY] is also interoperable with HomePlug AV and is on a similar timeline. HomePlug cumulative shipments are forecast to pass the 85 million mark by the end of 2011, representing close to 80% of the worldwide market for Powerline networking.
"Given that the G.hn specification is still under development, is not interoperable with any existing Powerline technology and will offer less than 50% of the performance of HomePlug AV2, we have trouble seeing the logic of a successful launch of the technology. HomePlug is the Powerline market leader with a roadmap for the future and will continue to increase its market share."
Ranck points out that HomeGrid, the Intel-backed marketing and compatibility alliance for G.hn, has only 15 members compared with HomePlug’s 70. He says more than 50 service providers, including Swisscom, either are currently or are planning rollouts of HomePlug gear.
He predicts that almost 100 million HomePlug devices will be installed by the time G.hn network gear gets to market in quantity.
Ranck says G.hn is not a sure bet and points out Intel’s past failures in establishing network standards.
He also says HomePlug is more likely to be a self-install product than coax-based gear. It’s something the service providers would love to see because it would save them millions of man-hours.
HomePlug is the only wireline network standard whose gear is widely found in retail stores, which says something about its ease of installation.
CopperGate Defends G.hn from Attacks
Responding to the criticism of G.hn was CopperGate VP of marketing Michael Weissman, who is a board member of the G.hn marketing and certification alliance HomeGrid Forum. CopperGate has been an active member of the G.hn development group.
Coppergate led the development of HPNA and recently announced it’ll make HomePlug compliant chips by using technology it acquired from Conexant.
Coppergate’s HomePNA (HPNA) chips may be the third-most installed wireline network, counting AT&T and a bevy of smaller telcos as HPNA deployers. Weissman said:
"Number one — there is no way G.hn will be backward compatible to HomePlug AV because the PHY has already been approved, and the core component needed for backward compatibility was in the PHY layer that was approved.
"Number two — the DLL was ‘deemed sufficiently stable’ by the group and [it] will consent in January. This wording comes straight from the text agreed to last week. In order for the DLL to change, they have to prove the current technology specified is technically broken. This won’t happen as it isn’t broken.
"Number three — this process has not slowed down development, and it is interesting that HomePlug has the foresight to know that no company can possibly ship G.hn before mid-2011 based upon a finalized standard, yet the HPNA 2 spec won’t be finished for another six months but will ship faster. This would be quite an engineering feat, since it takes about six months after freeze to deliver chips, and that would assume they finish the chip design the same day they finish the spec. It ignores both DS2 and CopperGate’s announced release dates.
"Number four — the smart energy issue comment is inaccurate. What happened was a procedural mistake that was corrected in committee. There will be smart energy functionality in G.hn."
The HomePlug alliance is not a member of the G.hn development group, but several member companies of HomePlug and MoCA are.
CopperGate has said it’ll produce a G.hn chipset that supports its HPNA technology if its customers, primarily AT&T, ask for it. The company has not said whether it would make a chipset that supports its HomePlug technology. The hypothesis here is that it would if the market potential is big enough. But the chipset is unlikely to be interoperable with DS2’s planned G.hn interoperability of its prior two Powerline technologies.
Questions remain, however, about the compatibility and interoperability of G.hn operating without interference in homes with Powerline or MoCA.
We also have not seen for some time any predictions for G.hn’s speeds over coax, electrical and phone wires.
And Here’s the Market
Reportlinker says wireline home network technologies are beginning to make strides with growth driven primarily by telcos deploying pay-TV.
It predicts the number of installations of wireless and wireline home networks combined will surpass 300 million in 2011 and that more than 500 million home network devices will be shipped in 2010.
It’s very difficult and expensive for a service provider to switch from one standard to another, especially one that’s as prevalent as home networking. AT&T and Verizon, the world’s two largest service providers, are most likely to carry on with HPNA and MoCA respectively.
The time and cost to replace HPNA devices in AT&T’s trucks and warehouses or MoCA gear in Verizon’s is astronomical. That’s not counting the time, cost and disruption incurred during the gear testing and training of technicians and support people.
The companies have gear that’s proven to work in thousands of homes, so why change? Perhaps there’s some overwhelming competitive or financial advantage.
Comcast and other cablecos worldwide plus the two US satellite TV services, DirecTV and DISH, appear headed to standardization on MoCA. After all, Comcast’s Charles Cerino is and has been president of MoCA. Panasonic has demonstrated DVRs at trade shows that are clearly labeled Comcast. However, Comcast, the largest cableco and the sector’s bell ringer, has not publicly committed to a MoCA launch date.
So that leaves the other major telcos such as BT, DT, FT, Telecom Italia, BellCanada, Telstra and Telefonica as potential customers for large quantities of home networking gear. They’re not as interested in gear that uses coax because coax is not as widespread in homes outside the US.
Their interest then, assuming a killer Wi-Fi standard doesn’t come along, is Powerline networking. That means the competition will be between HomePlug and G.hn with MoCA only a minor competitor outside the States — hence HomePlug’s desire to see G.hn headed off at the pass.
Converging Networks and the Wi-Fi Factor
What every consumer and pay-TV service would most like is a wireless technology that provides piracy-proof and flicker-free video streams to every nook and cranny in the home; can be connected in a compatible way with every device in the home; and is embedded in every CE device.
Since that’s not likely to happen in the next five years, the best than can be expected is a chipset that supports Wi-Fi, Powerline and coax. One scenario is a G.hn chipset that supports existing network technology like CopperGate and DS2 have promised. Another possibility is the increased integration of HomePlug and MoCA.
One company that could merge G.hn, HPNA, HomePlug and Wi-Fi is set-top box maker Sigma. It recently acquired CopperGate, the instigator of the coax network technology HPNA and the owner of HomePlug technology and patents it acquired from Conexant. Both CopperGate and Sigma support G.hn, with Coppergate promising to be the first out of the door with G.hn chips.
Another contender in the converged arena is Atheros, a leading maker of Wi-Fi chips. It recently acquired HomePlug chipmaker Intellon, which could help develop a dual network chipset with MoCA chip maker Entropic. There’s no technological reason that Atheros couldn’t add its Wi-Fi technology and produce chips for triple network devices that aren’t G.hn.
Intellon and Entropic said they intend to show video streaming "seamlessly" between MoCA and HomePlug networks at CES in January.
"Aligning the capabilities of Entropic’s MoCA and Intellon’s HPAV (HomePlug AV) solutions will ensure continued compatibility with tens of millions of devices already deployed by service providers and consumers around the world," the two companies said in a joint statement.
They said that their future MoCA 2.0 and HPAV2 will allow physical-layer speeds above 1 Gbps.
Giving Sigma and Atheros some motivation are the looming shadows of Intel and Broadcom, the two giants of chip making. Intel was a founder of HomePlug but withdrew its support several years ago when the company plucked Matthew Theall from its HomePlug head position to run HomeGrid. Broadcom has recently shown its interest in home networking by producing MoCA chips that are part of its processor chips for set-top boxes.
We are talking about billions of chips here — three to six or even more home network devices in upward of a billion homes worldwide in the next five or so years.
Neither Broadcom or Intel is likely to let an emerging major market pass it by. |
