Home Networking reaches 128 MBPS and beyond with HomePNA 3.0.

The Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HomePNA), the organization driving the development and adoption of a single phoneline networking technology, set a new standard for home networking today by finalizing its third-generation technology, HomePNA 3.0. Surpassing industry expectations, the final HomePNA 3.0 reaches an unprecedented data rate of 128 Mbps with optional extensions reaching up to 240 Mbps. As the only home networking industry specification capable of reaching above 100 Mbps and with inherent deterministic Quality of Service (QoS), HomePNA technology complements wireless networking technologies providing the ideal high speed backbone for a home multimedia network requiring a fast and reliable channel to distribute multiple, feature-rich digital audio and video applications throughout a home.

Using existing home telephone wiring, HomePNA 3.0 enables consumers with multiple PCs to take advantage of a single, high-speed Internet connection to simultaneously check e-mail, browse the Web, and share peripherals as well as to stream audio and video content to consumer electronics devices and PCs without interfering with standard telephone services.

"HomePNA 3.0 has set the bar for reliability and performance for home networking technology," said Rich Nesin, president of HomePNA and vice president of marketing at CopperGate Communications. "With the rollout of HomePNA 3.0, the organization has exceeded its own high expectations and has delivered to the consumer a specification that will meet their home networking needs for years to come. HomePNA has redefined its position as a powerful interface for the multimedia home network."

"Telecommunications service providers recognize the incredible potential of broadband DSL fueled home networking, and as an industry, we are converging on new standards, specifications and provider best practices that are setting the stage for home networking excellence," said Tom Starr, chairperson and president of the DSL Forum (http://www.dslforum.org). "With 36 million users of broadband DSL globally as of year-end 2002, the pace of subscriber adoption is accelerating and DSL Forum is focused on tailoring DSL to empower networked homes around the world. HomePNA is to be congratulated for stepping forward to forge this initiative that will help shape the future of our business."

Deterministic Quality of Service makes HomePNA 3.0 unique among "no new wires" home networking specifications in its ability to deliver multiple high-speed real-time audio and video data streams without disruption in addition to "best effort" data. While HomePNA 2.0's QoS enabled equipment manufacturers to prioritize telephone voice data higher then computer data, multimedia home networking requires much stronger QoS. HomePNA 3.0 greatly enhances version 2.0 capabilities adding deterministic QoS support for real-time data. The technology permits users to assign specific time slots for each stream of data guaranteeing that the real-time data will be delivered when it is required with predetermined latency and without interruption. This capability enables providers to offer "triple play" services of POTS, high speed Internet access, broadcast and on-demand video over the home network to lower customer churn and increase revenue per customer. It also allows HomePNA V3 to transport data with inherent QoS requirements such as IEEE1394.

"The real purpose--and benefit--of consortiums like HomePNA is to develop standard technologies that meet consumers' needs and that will stand the test of time," said Kurt Scherf, vice president of research at Park Associates, a Dallas-based market research and consulting company. "By reaching 128 Mbps and beyond, HomePNA 3.0 lays the foundation for the next generation of home networking solutions geared toward multimedia applications. By addressing such issues as QoS for such applications as streaming video and audio, HomePNA 3.0 addresses the critical need of a plethora of vendors and service providers for a reliable, low-cost, and easy-to-use backbone solution that can complement additional networking technologies."

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has already adopted global phoneline networking standards G.989.1, G989.2 and G989.3 based on the HomePNA 2.0 specification. HomePNA members companies are working together and will shortly present recommendations based on version 3.0 to the ITU-T. The HomePNA 3.0 physical interface is based on version 2.0 physical layer technology and is fully backwards compatible and interoperable with HomePNA version 2.0 network components proven by field trials in hundreds of homes and shipping in products from multiple leading vendors for over two years.

Silicon solutions incorporating the HomePNA 3.0 specification are being developed to power a variety of devices including pre-configured PCs, network interface cards and adapters, residential gateways, broadband modems, printers, multimedia devices, Internet appliances, set top boxes and consumer electronics products such as TVs, DVDs, DVRs and home entertainment systems. HomePNA 3.0 silicon products supporting adapters and bridges are expected to be available later this year.

The Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HomePNA) is an incorporated, non-profit association of industry-leading companies working together to ensure adoption of a single, unified, phoneline networking industry specification and rapidly bring to market a range of interoperable data and audio/video home networking solutions. Founded in June 1998, the Alliance's membership includes cutting-edge international companies, spanning the networking, telecommunications, hardware, software and consumer electronics industries.