Networking The Household

Wayne CaswellHomeRF Communications Chairman

Separating the Home from the Workplace

HomeNET Forum: Winter 2001

Separating the Home from the Workplace

Do Technologies move Up-market or Down?

Telecommuting & Mobility(Benefits of Work-at-Home)

Environmental Differences(Home Network issues)

Application Differences

Do Technologies move Up-market or Down?

Enterprises loaded OS/2.Window was preloaded.

Users familiar with Windows.

IBM PC introduced in 1981, butnot sold in Enterprises until 1984.

Technologies move Up-market, not Down.

Peer Networking

CD-ROM, Sound Card, DVD

Mobile Phones

Digital Cameras, Color Printers

Even Sales Force Automation

Telecommuting & Mobility

BENEFITS Improved Morale (60%) Employee Work / Life Balance (43%) Office Real Estate Savings (33%) Flexibility in Hiring (parent w/ kids) More Customer Face-time

ROAD BLOCKS Mid-Management Objection (25%) Inadequate IT (19%)

The 15 second commute.

Always available.(Source: Kinetic Workplace survey prior to September 11)

Environmental Differences - Enterprise Offices

Hollow Walls Hung Ceilings Raised Floors NW Administrators Corporate Budget Hard Surfaces (wireless reflections)

Similarity Desktop PCs dominate

Environmental Differences - Homes

Fire Blocks Slab Foundations Land Lords Local Mobility Voice, Data, Music, TV Mom (as admin?) Personal Budget Soft Carpet (wireless absorption)

Similarity Desktop PCs dominate

Ethernet along the baseboard

and to adjacent bedrooms

Wireless for Convenience

Application Differences - Enterprise Offices

Data Applications• E-mail

• Microsoft Office

• Application Servers

• SAP

Remote Access• Customers, Homes,

Hotels

• VPN Security

• Campus Roaming(wireless)

Application Differences - Homes

Extends Beyond DATA• E-mail, Web browsing,

Gaming, Photo editing, Microsoft Works

• Digital Music

• Television

• TelephoneCommunications

Local Mobility• Some Remote Access

through Home Gateway

Information,Communications, and Entertainment Markets are Converging

Home Home NetworkingNetworking

Voice, Data,Voice, Data,and Entertainmentand Entertainment

Set Top Box

CommunicationCommunication InformationInformation

Web Pad

PDA

Entertainment Entertainment

ModemPhone

BROADBANDBROADBANDCable, xDSL, ...Cable, xDSL, ...

20.6

28.231.3

39.743.4

0.84.5

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

Sal

es (

M u

nit

s)

Cordless Phones Wireless LANs

+37%

+11%

+27%+9%

Sources : CEA & Intersil

US Cordless Phone Market

900

MH

z

2.4

GH

z

Multi-Line, Multi-User Phones are Voice Only Home Networks

POTSPOTS

VoiceDevice

VoiceDevice

VoiceDevice

ISDNISDN

True Home Networking includes Information, Communications, Entertainment

POTSPOTSISDNISDN

xDSLxDSLCableCable

Existing Upper Layers

TCP UDP

IPDECT

HomeRF MAC Layer

HomeRF PHY Layer

CSMA/CAPriorityCSMA TDMA

HomeRF Network Layers

“Ethernet”Data Path

StreamingMedia Path

Toll-QualityVoice Path

PC Services on Handset Display

PC controls thehandset display, receives all key presses.

First Step:First Step:Text menusText display

Next Steps:Next Steps:Scripting ExtensionsUPnP ProxySDKSpeech recognitionText-to-Speech

Bandwidth Requirements

Application Speed Requirement

Text 300 bps

Telephone 8-64 Kbps

Color Image 25 KB – 2,500 KB

Digital Photos 1,000–10,000 KB

Digital Music 128–700 Kbps

Video Conferencing 384-2,000 Kbps

MPEG-4 VoD (VCR/DVD) 250-750 Kbps

HDTV (compressed) 20,000 Kbps

Wireless Choices for the Broadband Internet home

- Advantage ~ - Adequate X - DisadvantageLegend:

X ~

X ~

Roaming Outside the Home ~ ~ ~

ATTRIBUTE HomeRF Bluetooth 802.11b

Cost

Security

Interference Immunity

Toll-Quality Voice Support

Streaming Media Support

Data Throughput

Range

Power Consumption

Form Factor

Network Topology

~ X

~ X

~

X

X

X ~

X ~

~ ~

~

Homes have More Absorption, Less Reflection

Signals can arrive at different times and cancel each other out.

Advertised Data Rate: 11 Mbps

1 Mbps

5 Mbps

2 Mbps

~1 Mbps

~0.5 Mbps

Throughput

~5 Mbps

~2.5 Mbps

0’ 50’ 90’ 130’ 300’

RANGE: Signal Strength Diminishes with Distance

Performance over DistanceHomeRF 2.0 vs. 802.11b

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

10' 20' 30' 40' 50' 60' 70' 80' 90' 100' 110' 120' 130' 140' 150'

802.11b HRF 2.0

No

min

al t

hro

ug

hp

ut

(Mb

ps)

Broadband/ MPG 4 Video

MPEG2 Video

Dial-up / MP3 Audio

Source: Practical and Theoretical Calculations

HomeRF provides real-time media streaming to more nodes over a greater distance.

ATTENUATION: Signal Strength Diminishes through Materials

BU

ILD

ING

WA

LL

Wood and plaster Walls or Floors are OK. Even Brick.

Metal and thick rock block the RF signals.

The Higher the Frequency, the more signal loss.

5 GHz is worse than 2.4 GHz.

HomeRF Does Not Compromise Security …… Like Wi-Fi Does

BU

ILD

ING

WA

LL

Trivial task to bypass Wi-Fi

security w/ standard products

Gateways offer Firewall SecurityBut Power Line & RF extend Outdoors,

InternetEthernet

HomePNA or HomePlug

so beware of Compromises!

HomeRF is Neighbor Friendly

ideal for Broadbandavoids Interference

HomeRF Hops Out of InterferenceFHSS DSSS

TimeTime

Freq

uenc

y

IEEE 802.11b waits for Interference to go away

HomeRF

Thank you

Wayne.Caswell@ ICM.Siemens.com