HomePNA

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The HomePNA Alliance (formerly the Home Phoneline Networking Alliance) is an incorporated non-profit industry association of companies that develops and standardizes technology for home networking over the existing coax cables and phone wires within the home.

The HomePNA (also known as HPNA) promoter companies (Board of Directors) that set the course for the organization are AT&T, 2Wire, Motorola, CopperGate, Scientific Atlanta, Conexant, Sunrise Telecom and K-Micro. HomePNA creates industry specifications which it then standardizes under the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a leading global standards body. HomePNA also promotes the technology, tests, and certifies member products as HomePNA compliant.

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[edit] Overview

HomePNA does not manufacture products although its members do. It develops technology and tests it in periodic "plugfests". Products that pass certification testing are listed on the alliance's member products page as HomePNA certified. The current version of the HomePNA specifications is 3.1.

The basic technology that was adopted by HomePNA was developed by several companies. The original HomePNA 1.0 technology was developed by Tut Systems; HomePNA 2.0 was developed by Epigram; HomePNA 3.0 was developed by Broadcom and Coppergate Communications; and the most recent version, HomePNA 3.1 was developed by Coppergate Communications. [1].

HomePNA 2.0 was approved by the ITU as global standard Recommendations G.9951, G.9952 and G.9953.

HomePNA 3.0 was approved by the ITU as global standard Recommendation G.9954 (02/05)in Feb. 2005.

HomePNA 3.1 was approved by the ITU as global standard Recommendation G.9954 (01/07)in Jan. 2007.

HomePNA 3.1 is the first of a new generation of home networking standards developed for new "entertainment" applications such as IPTV which require consistent high performance over the entire house. This type of technology, which provides advanced features such as guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS), is being used today by major service providers for commercial "triple play" (video, voice and data) service offerings. HomePNA 3.1 uses frequencies above those used for DSL, ISDN, and voice calls over phone wires and below those used for broadcast and direct broadcast satellite (DBS) TV over coax so it can coexist with those services on the same wires.

HomePNA 3.1 was developed to add operation over coax cables to increase the networking capabilities and overcome some limitations of phone jack location.

[edit] Requirements

The Requirements for HomePNA 3.0 are:

  1. Standard telephone wire or coax cable (the same coax cable used for digital TV today.
  2. Hardware certified by HomePNA. Certified products can be found at Member Products

[edit] Advantages

Some advantages of HomePNA 3.1 are:

  • No special or new home wiring is required.
  • Existing services Phone, fax, DSL, Satellite or off-the-air TV viewing are not disrupted since HomePNA operates at different frequencies on the same coax or phone wires.
  • The newest products offer data rates up to 320Mbps providing enough capacity to carry many High Definition TV (HDTV) and Standard Definition TV (SDTV) video streams.
  • Guaranteed QoS eliminates the "collisions" on the network that you have with Ethernet. It enables "real time" data streams such as IPTV to be delivered to the destination without interruption.
  • A maximum of 64 devices can be connected.
  • The devices can be up to a thousand feet (300 m) apart on phonewires and multiple thousands of feet apart over coax, more than sufficient for homes.
  • Uses standard Ethernet drivers making it easy to add to any product with an Ethernet port without regard to operating system.
  • The required hardware is not expensive.
  • Straightforward to add other technologies such as 802.11 Wi-Fi to create a hybrid wired/wireless home network
  • Service Providers can deliver phone, Internet and video in a single bundled package through HomePNA Certified hardware.
  • The hotel industry has found HomePNA a highly cost effective option [2].
  • The technology works in Multi-Dwelling Units (MDU) such as apartment buildings for delivering triple play services to apartments or distributing the services within apartments.

[edit] Disadvantages

Some disadvantages of HomePNA 3.0 are:

  • Doesn't coexist with DOCSIS
  • Available chipsets are few

[edit] Alternatives

Other home network systems which do not require new wiring include:

[edit] External links