May 27, 2009

Momentum Continues for G.Hn Standard

HomeGrid Forum announced that the ITU-T has achieved yet another milestone in the progress of G.hn - the unified standard that supports home networking over multiple wires (power lines, phone lines, and coaxial cables).

This month, the ITU-T progressed the new draft for G.hn and adopted as "Baseline Text" significant portions of the Data Link Layer (DLL). Having the key elements of the DLL as Baseline Text also means that the G.hn group is on track to meet its goal of achieving Consent for the complete G.hn standard during 2009. Stable Baseline Text for the DLL – coupled with the December 2008 Consented Network Architecture and Physical Layer for G.hn – further enables silicon vendors to progress their product development. To date, three silicon vendors and one silicon intellectual property vendor have announced their intention to develop products for the new G.hn standard.

Key elements of the G.hn DLL that reached Baseline Text within the ITU-T are:
 

• A Time-Division Multiple Access (TDMA) Media Access Control (MAC), which provides guaranteed bandwidth and low latency for applications that have strict Quality of Service (QoS) requirements, such as IPTV. G.hn's MAC also includes support for multiple priority levels, to ensure that an application, such as peer-to-peer file transfers, do not impact the performance of higher-priority applications like IPTV, VoIP, or online gaming.
 

• A Logical Link Control (LLC) sub-layer that ensures delivery of data over home electrical wiring. G.hn’s LLC employs an advanced selective ARQ (Automatic Retransmission Request) protocol that automatically re-transmits data affected by noise and provides error-free end-to-end Ethernet services to any G.hn device on the network connected to power lines, phone lines, or coaxial cables.
 

• A procedure for efficient aggregation of multiple Ethernet messages over a single MAC Protocol Data Unit (MPDU). This significantly increases network throughput to support applications such as High-Definition IPTV that have large bandwidth requirements. G.hn specifies line data rates up to 1 Gbit/s, significantly higher than current generation wired networking technologies.
 

• State-of-the-art security based on AES (Advanced Encryption Standard - FIPS-PUB-197) and CCM (Cipher Block Chaining Message Authentication Code - NIST-SP-900-38C).
 

The functional areas of the DLL that are now adopted as Baseline Text ensure that G.hn can support applications with strict QoS requirements (such as high-definition video), and that G.hn can be used in products for the service provider, consumer electronics, and PC markets.

“The United Nations’ ITU-T continues to make rapid progress towards a single unified standard for delivering multimedia content around the home,” said Matthew Theall, president of the HomeGrid Forum. “Additionally, this next-generation standard has been actively driven by some of the world’s leading service providers, consumer electronics manufacturers and PC companies.”

HomeGrid Forum is actively promoting and developing compliance and interoperability test programs for the G.hn standard. These programs will simplify the development, purchase, installation, and use of HomeGrid Forum-Certified products through the entire ecosystem of silicon providers, services providers, consumer electronics companies, personal computer companies, and retailers. The group continues to seek new members that can help drive the success of G.hn.

HomeGrid Forum also announced that BT (British Telecommunications plc) has joined the organization and its Board of Directors.

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