HomePlug Powerline Alliance endorses IEEE's hybrid home networking standard

In the latest home networking "no new wires" battle, the HomePlug Powerline Alliance has voiced its support for the IEEE's new catchall home networking standard--IEEE P1905.

Similar to the G.hn standard, the new P1905 standard also supports a mix of HomePlug AV, WiFi, MoCA and Ethernet wires for home networking.

IEEE's P1905 standard will give manufacturers of home gateways and Blu-Ray players an abstraction layer to established powerline, wireless, coax and Ethernet home networking technologies.

Through a common interface, the IEEE P1905's abstraction layer creates an environment where applications and upper layer protocols are agnostic to the underlying home networking technologies. The IEEE added that P1905 also simplifies network set up, a common Achilles heel of broadband installations, by providing common procedures to add new devices, establishing secure links, implementing QoS and network management.  

"The hybrid home network is clearly the network of the future--offering the best networking technology to meet the consumer's needs--so IEEE establishing this standard is significant," said Rob Ranck, president of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance in a release.

Already, the new standard has gained support from wide group of silicon vendors (Broadcom, Qualcomm Atheros, Ralink, Sigma Designs, SPiDCOM Technologies and STMicroelectronics), telecom vendors (Cisco Systems) and service providers (France Telecom). Of course, the IEEE is not alone as the G.hn camp, which is supported by the Home Grid Forum, has also been driving its own hybrid home networking wiring standard.

For more:
- see the release

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