Information Appliance Network in Pervasive Home Computing

Technology experts continue to hail the arrival of the digital revolution and the information era, and the average citizen continues to wait for the realities of these promises to materialize in their daily lives. With current desktop PC penetration reaching roughly half of U.S. households, it is difficult to see how this technology revolution will ever reach the mainstream consumer.

The concept of pervasive computing emerged as a vision for the future where people will use information appliances to connect and communicate anytime from anywhere. Unlike the general-purpose PC of today, information appliances will be small, inexpensive consumer devices optimized to perform a specialized set of user-centric functions.

The Pervasive Computing Vision

• Microchip intelligence is embedded into everyday devices and objects
• People can access information, entertainment and communicate with one another from anywhere at anytime
• Technology invisibly penetrates into the mainstream mass market through a variety of life-enhancing applications
• Device "gadgetry" gives way to simple and practical consumer-centric solutions
• Mainstream Market Value Propositions: Saving time, saving money, enhancing leisure and entertainment
• Long Term Vision: Using technology in ways that empower people to work, live, and play more effectively.

The vision of pervasive computing interconnecting all people via a globally integrated, ubiquitous network promises to greatly empower the individual. Realizing such a vision requires the implementation of new technologies that before now were merely visionary.

Recent advancements in the home networking market mark a new era in consumer computing. The emergence of high-speed, multi-layer, in-home networks will integrate traditional home automation and control technologies (such as X-10 and CEBus) with real-time, media rich applications such as voice and video conferencing. Most importantly, these new technologies employ new deployment strategies that will bring broadband inter-networking applications to the domestic mass market.

Realization of a mass-market revolution will have to involve new types of strategic planning to connect individual organizations from different industries into an intricate network of alliances and interest groups. Additionally, this vision requires a simplified consumer-marketing strategy that focuses on customer solutions instead of technology products.

The Home Infostructure Solution
The technology that will bring pervasive computing to the domestic marketplace is the Home Infostructure solution, a home operating system that will serve as an economic conduit between marketplace vendors and residential consumers. The Home Infostructure enables:

• Interoperation of electro-domestic network devices (ENDs) or "Information Appliances"
• Distribution of digital media commodities (DMCs) in the form of communications, information, and entertainment titles
• Delivery of value-added services (sub-market brokering, network administration, and customer relationship management).

More than just a connection to the Internet, the Home Infostructure serves as the technology platform for a new generation of user applications, including voice and video communications, e-commerce solutions, personalized news services, home security and automation, utilities resource management, and entertainment title distribution. The Home Infostructure holds significant economic importance to businesses because it serves as an efficient, mass-market distribution platform that can deliver digital media content and value-added services directly into the hands of the consumer.

There are three components to the Home Infostructure:

1. Broadband Local Loop—High-speed Internet connection to the home
2. Residential Gateway (RG)—Interface device that connects the broadband (WAN) to the in-home network (LAN)
3. Information Appliance Network (IAN)—High-speed, in-home data network that distributes an Internet connection to ubiquitous access points. The IAN provides interconnectivity for all electro-domestic networked devices (ENDs) within the home.

Figure 1: Components of the Home Infostructure

Broadband Local Loop—Home Internet Connectivity
Analysts predict that broadband deployment (via xDSL and cable) will reach about 6 million total subscribers by the year 2002, but this figure remains relatively small considering that there are over 100 million households in the U.S. Current xDSL and cable subscribers tend to fit the following profile:

• Live in a geographic region where the service is available
• Have the financial resources to subscribe to high-speed services
• Have the interest and technological savvy for using such services.

Some of these early adopters will participate in the first generation of converged voice and data network applications including VoIP telephony, e-commerce, and multi-player gaming. As the penetration of broadband connectivity reaches a critical mass of subscribers, more advanced applications such as video-conferencing, media distribution, and home healthcare will emerge. However, mainstream adoption of broadband technology will only happen when the following criteria have been met:

• The network user interface masks the complexity of the underlying technology, offering an ease-of-use comparable to traditional domestic appliances (like telephones and VCRs) as opposed to the desktop PC.
• The service providers offer a single-point-of-contact for network installation, maintenance, administration, and customer interface activities. This may include billing consolidation for multiple services that will be scaled for each consumer's individual application needs.

Integrating the broadband local loop, the residential gateway, and the Information Appliance Network into a Home Infostructure will expedite mainstream adoption of the technology. The market players that will drive this convergence include device OEMs, content developers, and service providers who all benefit from having an end-end platform to access the consumer from the Internet. The following table outlines the functional requirements and enabling technologies for the broadband local loop component.

Residential Gateway—WAN-LAN Interface

The residential gateway (RG) is the WAN-to-LAN interface device that connects the broadband local loop to the in-home network, bringing a bi-directional communications channel to every networked device in the home. Since it serves as the centralized access point between the home and the outside world, the residential gateway represents an important strategic technology.

From the broadband perspective, the benefit of a LAN/WAN connection is the ability to extend broadband services to simultaneously run multiple network applications. From the home network perspective, broadband connectivity will allow high-speed access for all the devices on the home network.

Another important function of the RG is to serve as an access platform for service providers to perform control, query, and network administration functions, as well as remotely deploy services to the home from the Internet. With integrated firewall and security features, the RG can also facilitate authorized third-party services to the home, such as home healthcare.

Additionally, the RG serves as the technological bridging point for the integration of sub-network systems. At present, associations such as the Open Service Gateway Initiative (OSGi) are attempting to develop specifications that may soon become an open industry standard for the RG's API and physical-layer bridging features.

Information Appliance Network (IAN)
A wide variety of technologies exist for interconnecting devices within the home, but so far interconnection occurs on a limited scale. Traditional 10baseT/Cat5 Ethernet systems offer a good solution, but most consumers do not have the time, interest, or knowledge to rewire their homes.

Fortunately, the emergence of wireless, phone line, and power line technologies offers prospects for solving the mass-market home networking issue. Since each solution presents distinct benefits and drawbacks, many organizations are beginning to suggest that all of these technologies will exist in a multi-layered home network architecture. Power line technology can potentially provide the home network backbone with interconnected sub-networks, such as control, entertainment, and mobility.

Home Network Technology Comparison

No single technology fulfills all of the application requirements of the home network, which means that multiple technologies will be deployed at different times, each addressing the needs of unique market segments. At present, many different technologies promise to address the application requirements of the home network in different ways. The benefits and drawbacks of these technologies are evaluated in the following section.

Re-Wired Solutions
Most of the major white goods, consumer electronics, and computer OEMs now endorse a "no new wiring" strategy for interconnecting their next generation of intelligent devices. Although proven technologies such as 10baseT/CAT5 Ethernet and IEEE 1394 can support broadband data applications, both technologies involve running wires between devices across the home.

Several obstacles in this retrofitting process eliminate these technologies as viable mass-market solutions. Obstacles include high costs, significant technological complexity, and an awkward installation procedure. Consequently, 10baseT/CAT5 Ethernet and IEEE 1394 will likely exist as sub-networks, interconnecting clusters of devices, which will then interface with a "no new wiring" home network backbone.

"No New Wiring" Solutions
Many emerging technologies, including phone line, wireless, and power line, are vying for control to establish themselves as the "no new wiring" home network standard. Although each technology has unique benefits, high-speed power line technology, once available, would offer the optimal solution, combining ubiquitous network access points (every power outlet) with the lowest possible cost.

Phone Line
Phone line technology transmits data between multiple phone jacks within the home. Although phone line technology currently leads the "no new wiring" technologies in product development with existing products ranging from 1-10Mbps, the architecture of the phone line system throughout the home presents an insurmountable obstacle to be considered as a viable long term solution for the home network backbone.

Drawbacks for phone line technology as a home network backbone include:

• Limited number of phone jacks per home (especially outside of U.S.)
• Physical location of those jacks with respect to the devices that need to be networked
• Ratio of total networkable devices to available phone jacks.

The problem of limited phone jacks is especially important when considering foreign markets. Many homes in Europe and South America have only a single phone jack. While multiple devices could share the connection, this solution would not be more effective than running new wiring directly between the devices.

Phoneline technology may dominate the first generation home networks by enabling basic networking applications such as interconnecting multiple PCs, peripheral sharing, and Internet account sharing, but since phone jacks cannot support pervasive computing in the home, phone line technology will later be supplanted by wireless and power line technologies as long term solutions for the Home Infostructure.

Wireless
Wireless communications (including RF and IR) seems to present the ideal solution for the home network, but RF and IR solutions have a variety of technical and deployment obstacles. The "multipath effect" can significantly decrease the effective bandwidth within a given home and electromagnetic radiation (EMR) from neighboring home networks presents security concerns.

Additionally, industry standards such as HomeRF and Bluetooth both transmit in the unlicensed 2.4Ghz band. Although not intended as competing technologies, these networks will compete for spectrum and affect one another's bandwidth if deployed into the same environment.

Also, with the ongoing evolution towards simpler and cheaper thin-client devices, the cost points of the networking component will be an important factor. Although proponents claim that 100Mbps RF technology will soon be possible, the expense of silicon that can transmit at such high frequencies will likely prove cost prohibitive for the vast majority of consumer information appliances.

For these reasons, it is likely that wireless technology will not emerge as a home network backbone solution, but will instead serve to interconnect the class of devices that need mobile communications into a sub-network. These mobility sub-networks will interface with other sub-networks and with the Internet by connecting to the home network backbone.

Power Line
Powerline technology transmits data over the existing AC power line infrastructure within homes. Since most devices already connect to AC outlets for electricity, this would offer an ideal architecture for interconnecting computers as well as the next generation of intelligent electronics and appliances.

Until recently, the power line was not considered a viable option for high-speed data transmission due to the hostility of the communications environment. Appliance noise and attenuation presented engineering difficulties that were considered insurmountable. However, new breakthroughs in this field open the possibility of achieving data rates of 10Mbps and above. Coupled with wireless mobility sub-networks, a power line home network backbone could offer consumers an ideal platform for pervasive home computing.

IAN Functional Applications
Each home networking technology addresses the technical requirements for creating the Home Infostructure in different ways. The following outline provides an overview of the functional applications that each technology will serve best.

Electrodomestic Network Devices (ENDs)
Electrodomestic network devices refers to the set of intelligent, electricity-based processing tools used in domestic network environments, including all appliances, electronics, and computers that have both embedded intelligence and the ability to communicate with other devices.

Also called information appliances, electrodomestic network devices will have the ability to communicate and interoperate using the in-home network. In cases where the in-home network is connected to a broadband local-loop, like in the Home Infostructure model, these devices will be able to connect to the Internet, thereby enabling new applications such as remote network administration and Web-based home control and automation.

END Spectrum
The END spectrum sorts the following END devices into classes according to the degree that a device relies on digital intelligence (as opposed to mechanical functions) to create value as a consumer-processing tool.

• Appliances—Create value primarily though physical processing features (mechanical functioning)
• Electronics—Create value through both physical and logical processing features
• Computers—Create value primarily through logical processing features (digital intelligence).

Figure 2: ENDs Spectrum

Service and Content Bundling
The Home Infostructure may also enable END devices to come bundled with service programs and digital content subscriptions delivered from the Internet. For example, a news publisher might provide new subscribers with specialized "in home" news printers.

These smart devices could configure themselves to the Internet and print out personal daily papers with information customized to each subscriber's interests, increasing the value of the information delivered to the consumer and providing a more efficient distribution process for the publisher.

An example of service bundling may include a next-generation washing machine that automatically orders new parts and dispatches a maintenance technician in case of mechanical failure as a part of its service package.

In an example of content bundling, a Web-based music distributor sells in-home music servers. The servers would download song titles over the Internet and then stream the music to multiple speakers throughout the home, effectively eliminating the need to purchase CDs at retail music stores.

Figure 3: A home music server interfaces with the residential gateway to download newly purchased titles from an Internet music vendor.

The music server stores the files directly to its hard drive, and supports multiple loudspeakers through a power line-based IAN. The IAN powers the amplifiers (embedded in the speakers) and supplies the data for music titles.

Music is streamed upon demand (through a touch screen control interface) from the server, via the IAN, to multiple networked loudspeakers. Streamed data would travel between the devices via the AC electrical connections using power line Ethernet transceivers. Front-END loudspeakers could render the sound data through an embedded decompression engine that corresponds with the data storage format of the back-END music server (MP3 or other compression technology).

Household Superstructure
The household superstructure represents the portion of the network system that the consumer can interact with by touching, seeing, or hearing. Variations in the way consumers configure ENDs within the home (structure variance) and the unpredictability of applications running on ENDs (usage variance) present challenges that even complex business networks have yet to address. Household architecture issues relate to the technical requirements that the Information Appliance Network must support and are important to address.

Structure Variance
No two households will own the exact make, model, and quantity of ENDs, which means that the household superstructure will vary greatly across the demographics of the entire marketplace. The technical features of each END and their configuration architectures within each home (where and how consumers connect the devices to the home network) will prove much more unpredictable than traditional business network environments. To address this problem:

• Specifications must ensure interoperability and consistent functionality between different devices and different home network technologies
• Networks must operate in an automatically configured, plug and play fashion to the user.

Usage Variance
Applications and usage patterns for each device within the home will prove very unpredictable. Any END sold to a consumer might have embedded intelligence and communications capabilities that will use the home network. The following examples illustrate potential usage variance problems.

• A particular device may have an application designed to run based on the requirements of the home network, but the same application might not consider all the other devices using the same network to run applications simultaneously
• The consumer may choose to operate many devices that simultaneously tax the home network resources. For example, a networked washing machine with embedded intelligence senses malfunctions, automates repair servicing, and offers power consumption features that synchronize its operations schedule with the electricity provider for optimal energy pricing. The consumer is unaware of the technological underpinnings of such products (which is the underlying goal of pervasive/embedded computing vision) and does not consider computer-applications and resources when doing laundry.
• Variety and complexity of ENDs will increase over time as key product differentiators between competing device OEMs.

Enikia's IAN Information Appliance Network
The IAN, or Information Appliance Network, functions as secure, reliable, and ubiquitous high-speed in-home data backbone, solving an important component of the Home Infostructure deployment strategy. Enikia's power line-based IAN home networking technology meets the speed and ubiquity requirements necessary to support the multitude of information appliances that will be used within the home.

Enikia's IAN technology enables the transmission of Ethernet data over the home's existing electrical power lines at speeds of 10Mbps and beyond. Using this technology, next-generation appliances, computers, and electronic devices will be able to communicate with one another, enabling new applications such as home automation, resource sharing, centralized information access, and distributed media entertainment systems. With the rollout of high-speed Internet access to residential consumers, this technology will bring high-speed bandwidth to every electrical outlet in the home. Powerful new services will include remote home network management, multiple-user high-speed Internet access, and IP-based video and voice communications.

Early market entrants dismissed household AC power lines as unreliable, noisy, and unsecured for data networking. However, such a solution is just what is needed to enable the next generation of intelligent information appliances to not only "talk" with one another, but also to send and receive information from the Internet. Additionally, Enikia's IAN has integrated sophisticated security and reliability features to help ensure its viability as a practical mass-market technology solution.