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April 2001 Issue
Successful Home Networking: The Gateway Plays a Critical Role
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Home networking requires the skillful melding of the home environment, network gateway and public domain. Gateways make it easier to provide a wide range of bundled services to consumers.

Today’s customers demand well-developed and clearly articulated solutions that provide a better way of doing things in their home. They want more content and a rich set of managed, high-quality services that will enhance their everyday lives. Providing tangible value is key to successfully deploying home networks.

For example, a home network may allow people to enjoy everyday services and features such as shared telephony and Internet, intelligent audio devices, virtual private networking to the office, Web tablets for Web surfing, home-energy management, sharing interactive TV/gaming, imaging devices and security devices, integrated whole-house entertainment, mobile devices with dual functions in the home, car radios connected to the home system and a host of other features waiting to be defined.

Establishing the home gateway

As a cornerstone to making the whole ecosystem come together, the single most important link is the network gateway element, or home gateway (HG). The HG provides services to the end user, but also functions as a spigot through which the integrated services are concentrated. The HG is the critical piece of technology linking end users, their in-home devices including computers, printers, broadband modems, cameras, and televisions and the services available in the public domain.

The HG’s linkage function is what makes it the critical launching point in the deployment of a home network. The deployment of HG devices will enable service providers to supply consumers with more content and a rich set of managed, high-quality services, compelling people to sign up for higher tiers and greater bundles of services. It is important to remember that people are interested in what home networking will do for their daily life, not the technology behind it.

HGs will become the pervasive connection points in the home, providing communication services to all network elements. This connectivity enables devices that were never designed to talk to each other to be inter-reliable. If this new association between two devices enhances the intrinsic value of both devices and makes the end-users’ experience that much greater and simpler, then you have a successful implementation of a home networking application.

Let’s consider the following example. A personal information manager (PIM) device keeps end users informed of critical information, such as schedules. A gateway capability that allows the hot syncing of schedules in the PIM devices and the family calendar allows family members to keep track of significant events and align their schedules.

Defining the public element

The home and public elements of a home network are closely linked. Without one, the other has significantly diminished value. However, while the two elements are inarguably more valuable linked, they need to be considered separately, because market experience shows that most consumers do not want to be forced to rely on certain capabilities outside of their home. Many feel that certain things belong in the home, under the homeowner’s control.

This consumer’s need affects decisions regarding the service and application architecture. All architectural decisions result in many potential types of services and will affect the complexity of the interaction, the speed in which applications are rendered and the costs of the devices and services offered. So, consumers will choose from similar services, with some feature and cost differences. No single solution will prevail for all situations.

Getting started

The cable industry has a solid start in several existing and key home-networking applications. Certainly, shared Internet access is the first application, and voice telephony is positioned to become the next widely adopted home-networking-enabled application. Other solutions that have the potential for mass adoption and appeal include Internet music applications, home security, personal information coordination, enhanced TV applications, virtual private networking to the office, whole-house entertainment, home-energy management, home healthcare and personal connectivity to mobile capabilities.

Most notably, there is a huge market for the first two applications—shared Internet and voice telephony. There are more than 50 million personal computer (PC)-equipped households in the United States alone; 40 million are connected to the Internet. All of these households represent potential broadband customers and, subsequently, potential home-networking customers. Of existing telephony consumers, the market potential for home networking is huge, considering that telephony penetration in the United States is nearly ubiquitous. When you look at the potential service offerings in other solutions, these markets also are incredibly large. As an example, nearly the entire PC-equipped household market is capable of Internet audio, given the freely available music players and pervasiveness of online music.

Application development for home networks is still evolving, with many new companies creating service revenue-based models. The development of applications will be the area of most growth in the home networking ecosystem. As stated earlier, many deployment models will work, but most likely only a few—with similar functionality, but different execution and profitability—will make it.

Matching devices in the home

The service-based applications will utilize the in-place devices wherever they can, however, a whole class of network-capable devices will emerge. > These network-capable devices will be in form factors for the content type required by the application. As mentioned earlier, you may find intelligent audio devices, Web tablets for Internet tasks, imaging devices, security devices, interactive books and many others.

Without the matching service element, these devices are not very valuable. Also, penetration percentages are based upon individual consumers making the value equation and deciding to purchase. This is the market-push scenario, which can work, but at a much different rate than if the applications are service-provider based and exist to provide a market pull for the devices.

This being the case, there is a whole host of players in the home that can be leveraged immediately. The TV, home stereo, PIM devices, wireless application protocol (WAP)-enabled cell phones—all are great candidates for immediate usage via a home-networked application. Companies who design applications with these in mind as leverage points will be at an advantage in the marketplace. Also, these newest services can be created with a significant market availability lead-time advantage because they do not have to rely on a product introduction activity.

The combination of applications with home devices is a constant and ever evolving area. For the next six months to a year, growth in this area will be astonishing. While this expansion is occurring and market trials are underway, currently deployed home-network end users become a target market for these new services. The early users, building on their knowledge and trust in home networking systems, will become the standard bearers for the rest of the market. As more applications are developed and marketed, the chance of one of these solving a problem in a certain home becomes greater. Once the home gateway is introduced into the home to provide that one solution, this networked home becomes a candidate for all other services.

The finishing touches

Much like working on one’s own home, building a home-networking business involves several of the same elements each time, but on a different scale. In your own home, you determine the need to make a change, plan out your work, perform material selection, build it, then enjoy... and then do it again.

For a service provider who has considered home networking as its next service roll out, the need is assumed—you try to choose the right path to take and plan your service offerings; you look at all materials and make a selection you believe in and are comfortable with; you then deploy the solution and market and deliver the services.

Deploying home gateways today helps to build the foundation and understanding of the home-networking value across the customer base. This base becomes the foundation for deeper understanding and trust between consumers and providers, and will allow for the wider deployment of services as that understanding gets communicated through the customer base.

Vince Izzo is director of home networking for Motorola Broadband Communications Sector. He may be reached at .

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