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Here in the Future

Where is home networking headed, and how do we keep our installs from falling into obsolescence?

Here in the Future

Aug 1, 2001 12:00 PM,
By Craig Janik

BLINK AND YOU MISS A CHAPTER IN THE REVOLUTION/evolution of high-speed data transfer for home entertainment use. High speeds keep getting higher, and at faster speeds of acceleration just as Moore’s Law forecasts. As technologies parlay into more and more efficient systems for transferring data into the home, it’s important to keep up with the latest, not only so that current installs avoid obsolescence as long as possible, but also so that they’ll be able to be updated readily as technology evolves.

There is a progression toward digitization of content across many media, driven mainly by two technological trends. The first is the steady increase in, and affordability of, processing power. The second is the promise of high-speed broadband access as a digital distribution system for digital content. The processing power of the average PC lets consumers engage in high-quality audio encoding, compression, decoding and file transfer. Napster is a prime example of the convergence of these trends, enabling consumers to efficiently share audio files that they have digitized from CDs. Regardless of the outcome of Napster’s legal challenges, the creation and transfer of digital audio is now understood and desired by millions of consumers. Advances in encryption and digital rights management in support of e-commerce business models will likely spur the music industry (labels and publishers) to accept the transfer of digital content files as a viable if not necessary means of distribution.

DIGITAL FORMATS

The processing and sharing of digital images is expected to increase geometrically as digital cameras gradually replace conventional film chemistry. As system bandwidth increases, it is only a matter of time before digital video transport is as common as audio is now. Additionally, interactive multimedia (Flash and Shockwave) will increasingly be made available to end users with PCs, and increasingly to many devices beyond the PC.

The advent of Internet-enabled mobile phones, wireless PDAs, such as the Palm VII and the Blackberry, further supports demand for anytime, anywhere content access. Although the idea of time-shifting content has existed since the advent of VCRs, personal video recorders such as TiVo and Replay have introduced digital caching systems that make time-shifting content much more efficient and provide a better user interface.

Additionally, the proliferation of digital content is driving up quality expectations. MP3 technology is compelling because it is useful, portable and capable of CD quality. Digital radio formats via IP are also proliferating as media giants like Clear Channel and Infinity Broadcasting make digital streams available globally but with local ad insertion.

INTERNET INTERFACE

Although processing power is prevalent and broadband connectivity is proliferating, existing systems for the distribution of content in the home stop at the PC or at the set-top box. The distribution of Internet content throughout the home involves issues of bandwidth and quality. For example, practice has shown that a 128-bit encoded MP3 file requires a data rate of approximately 120 Kbps. The data rate required for DVD-quality full-motion video ranges from about 4 to 6 Mbps. That’s over 30 times faster! There may be improvement on this number depending on advances in compression technology, but currently, full-motion, DVD-quality video streaming can barely occur with the IP cable system (due to unpredictability of system-wide bandwidth usage) and is not possible with even the fastest DSL. The market for small-window (MPEG4), feature-length movies is practically non-existent. Video-on-demand services have been promised and are coming, although as lower-quality streams.

Streaming Audio

Streaming audio is a viable option today and is becoming more prevalent. But despite the efforts to improve quality of service, streaming audio over the Internet is not always reliable and is generally delivered at sub-CD-quality bit rates. Conventional IP-based networks, such as Ethernet, provide a nominal quantity of bandwidth to support streaming audio, but offer no guaranteed bandwidth. Streaming, because it is realized as a real-time event to the end user, requires either a minimum guaranteed bandwidth or a pipe that is always much larger than the bandwidth demands placed on it. For example, Ethernet may be able to deliver an audio stream with no drop-outs if the stream is the only bandwidth demand, but it may falter if a large-file transfer is initiated on the network. In summary, streaming of rich media from the Internet directly to multiple devices in the home is not the most optimal system architecture, especially if simultaneous streaming and data services are required on the same connection.

Local Caching

One approach to ensuring consistent quality is to cache digital media locally at a PC or storage gateway and serve it through high-speed home networks to various devices throughout the home. Indeed, there are 50 million Napster users that have already employed at least part of this equation, on average downloading hundreds of 2-4MB audio files to their computers. Caching is the most likely scenario that will allow multiple users to access the widest variety of rich media simultaneously. The quantity and quality of cached content will increase as does the bandwidth of the household connections to the Internet.

DIGITAL MEDIA DISTRIBUTION PLATFORM ARCHITECTURE

A system to serve up digital content to consumers can now be implemented using the existing installed base of PCs with dial-up and broadband, and ultimately migrate as an application on broadband storage gateways. Broadband storage gateways are defined as any Internet gateway device with a hard disk drive. For example, set-top boxes (that include DOCSIS modems and hard-disk drives for integral PVR capability) are entering the market. This is achieved through the addition of a wireless or wired LAN access point that serves a series of thin-client, intuitive entertainment and productivity devices. The SimpleDevices platform is centered on a PC or storage gateway that is constantly caching content, such as movies, music and audio-books, based on user preferences. A PC is also used to run intuitive user interfaces so that users can manage the content and set up content preferences. This system will also allow for data transfers to occur during off-peak hours, reducing WAN load and increasing reliability.

The platform strategy can be summarized by the following points:

  • Broadband connections today cannot support multiple rich media streams. Local caching of the content and subsequent streaming to devices via a high-speed LAN provides the best quality of service for end users.
  • Local caching allows network operators to optimize wide-area network bandwidth usage.
  • LAN data rates are increasing faster than wide-area or broadband data rates. The LAN can easily deliver the richest content to multiple devices.
  • Users want devices that are simple to operate. Low-cost devices will drive the fastest rate of adoption. Utilizing the PC or set-top box as the mass storage device allows the products to go to market with the lowest consumer price point. The PC is also used as the rich programming environment for the devices, so the burden of expensive interface technology is also removed from the devices.
  • Digitization, and thus modularization, of content is driving the time-shifting and preference-based selection of content. Users will increasingly pick and choose their favorite programs and watch them according to their own schedules.
  • Set-top boxes will all have storage in the near future as manufacturers provide personal-video-recorder functionality. The caching, streaming and scheduling functions will migrate to these devices because they are a robust platform.
  • The first products taken to market will be a series of low-cost Internet adapters. These are devices that complement users’ existing investments in other equipment such as stereos, TVs and PDAs by connecting the devices to the Internet.

HOME LAN TECHNOLOGY COMPARISON

The chart on below compares the major home networking technologies. It should be noted that although a company will first deploy wireless devices, it is believed that all of these technologies are useful, depending on the application and use.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth uses the 2.4GHz ISM band carrier and hops to different frequencies 1600 times per second. Currently, Bluetooth is offered in low- and high-power configurations. Low-power Bluetooth will be used mainly for connections such as synchronizing PDAs and mobile phone headsets, rather than for always-connected data or streaming functions. High-power (100 mW) Bluetooth was created to compete with the other wireless LAN products and requires an additional amplifier to take the transmission power to 100 mW, increasing the cost.

802.ll Products

Currently, there are two competing standards for home wireless LAN: HomeRF and IEEE 802.11b. Both of these standards operate in the ISM frequency band. The Apple Airport has been adopted by PC users as well as Apple customers. The Airport uses an 802.11b network interface and has a price point of $299 for essentially 10 MBps (10baseT Ethernet) speed. The 802.11b products use a direct-sequence, spread-spectrum process (i.e., it does not hop to various frequencies). The 802.11b PCI bus cards, PC cards, as well as access points, have been on the market for the past year, driven mostly by enterprise applications. The 802.11b USB devices will soon be marketed by several OEMs. The 802.11b network interface chipsets are produced by two suppliers, Lucent and Intersil. There is also a less popular frequency-hopping version of 802.11b that runs at 2 MBps.

Another standard currently in development that is scheduled for market entry in late 2001 is 802.11a, a direct-sequence technology that uses a 5GHz carrier frequency. This technology can achieve a 52MBps nominal data-rate. The 802.11a products will most likely make inroads in the enterprise market. The use of the 5GHz carrier makes 802.11a more power hungry and hotter than 802.11b, so its use in portable devices will be limited until the technology is optimized. Due to their different carrier frequencies, 802.11a is not backward compatible with 802.11b.

There are other proprietary versions of 802-based technology. Texas Instruments has developed a proprietary technology that is expected to be approved by the FCC, labeled 802.11g, with 22MBps capability. TI claims that these chipsets will ship in September 2001. Sharewave has developed a proprietary technology labeled 802.11e, with 11MBps capability that is scheduled to enter the market sometime in 2001.

HomeRF

HomeRF is a wireless LAN technology with significant market penetration. It is implemented as a frequency-hopping technology, hopping 50 times per second. The hopping function provides better immunity to interference, allows more nodes to co-exist in the same airspace, and also provides for better security, compared to 802.11b. HomeRF was designed specifically for the residential market, where voice and streaming media applications are required.

The HomeRF 2.0 specification includes a Digital Enhanced Cordless Telephony subsystem that provides toll-quality voice capability, as well as priority channels for streaming media. The priority streaming channels guarantee bandwidth and thus quality of service for entertainment applications, such as streaming music and video. As a result, several broadband suppliers, including Motorola-BCS market, HomeRF and Siemens, have chosen HomeRF as part of their home LAN product strategies.

SUMMARY

Local caching as a content distribution strategy is here to stay, if for no other reason than it affords consumers the ability to time-shift content. When this idea is considered along with all of the other benefits, such as wide-area network bandwidth optimization, it is the apparent logical progression and extension of the Internet. Futhermore, all of the requisite technologies, such as high-speed wireless LAN and broadband connectivity, are beginning to proliferate and, more importantly, decrease in cost. As the enabling technology becomes more transparent to the end user, the value of all of the content and services available on the Internet will increase.

Craig Janik is the CTO at SimpleDevices. SimpleDevices is a member of the HomeRF Working Group. Other members of the group include Compaq, Motorola, Proxima and Siemens.

HOME NETWORKING TRENDS & TECHNOLOGIES

The Interface: PCs to Remain On Top

The 1990s were characterized by the proliferation of a consumer information infrastructure. By 1999, more than 50% of all American households had a PC, an installed base of approximately 50 million units. It is predicted that by 2004, 75% of all homes will own at least one PC. Because of its flexible interface, the PC will likely remain the most prevalent point of interaction with the Internet for e-commerce and other activities that require a rich and secure interface.

It is because of this that the PC will continue to be the locus of most browsing interaction with the Web, and certainly for e-commerce. The PC is where users are in an ergonomic and cognitive position to interact with the Web. This is reinforced by the fact that 80% of workers in the United States have access to PCs in their daily work activities, and many have access to the Web in that location. Rich interaction is possible through TV but will require both an influx of new hardware (keyboards and pointing devices) and new user behavior, since TV viewing is currently a passive experience for the majority of users.

On average, a PC sold for home use today includes an 800MHz processor, 20GB hard disk, 128 MB of RAM, a USB port, a modem and an Ethernet port. While the capabilities of PC hardware have improved steadily, in reality, consumers use only a small portion of the PC’s tremendous computing power for applications like e-mail, Web browsing and word processing. As such, the PC has untapped capabilities as a powerful home media server, capable of delivering media to thin-client devices networked around it.

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