Marvell Expands The G.hn Ecosystem With New Chipset

September 28, 2011 3:09 AM in Marvell Semiconductor  | 0 comments  | 0 TrackBack

The G.hn ecosystem continues to grow as Marvell today announced its new ITU-T G.hn compliant transceiver chipset, which enables the complete unification of the home wireline network for distributing more content to more screens in more rooms in the home.

The new G.hn transceiver chipset family is designed to provide optimized home network performance over any wired medium (including powerline, coax and phoneline/twisted pair) in a single chipset, reducing overall cost, complexity of design and time to market (TTM) for system designers. With up to a 1 Gbps wire data rate, we expect the G.hn chipset to be an ideal solution for the wireline distribution of bandwidth-intensive and real-time applications such as HD IPTV, VoIP, gaming, multi-room DVR and beyond.

"Marvell's new G.hn transceiver chipset delivers optimal networking solutions for a broad range of applications in consumer electronics and service provider environments. The flexibility the chipset is designed to bring, in terms of medium choice along with our complete design package approach, enables Marvell customers to quickly adapt the technology to their specific markets and customers," said Gerry Liu, vice president of the Connectivity Business Group at Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. "The G.hn chipset is a key element of our connected home portfolio, enabling our customers to offer an immersive home network experience in an increasingly crowded market."

The introduction of the G.hn transceiver chipset further expands Marvell's comprehensive connectivity portfolio.

Marvell stands out in offering a complete set of connectivity solutions that enables original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and original design manufacturers (ODMs) to select complete multi-technology design packages to create systems that provide seamless and engaging experiences for consumers. From G.hn to Audio Video Bridging (AVB) enabled switches to multi-path Wi-Fi and traditional Ethernet LAN controllers, Marvell customers can create compelling new services for the market's most popular connected platforms.

Building upon Marvell's time-tested, field-proven firmware for UPA Powerline Communications (PLC), the G.hn firmware takes networks to new levels of performance, while ensuring coexistence with millions of deployed legacy UPA PLC products. Marvell's extensive experience in PLC also enables a fully optimized, easy-to set up solution for use in homes globally as well as extensive in-home manageability for service providers. The reference designs released with the G.hn chipset introduction can be ported directly to manufacturing prototypes, speeding TTM.

"G.hn solutions offer a fast, elegant method for OEMs and service providers to deliver in-home networking of Ethernet-enabled devices," said Heath Lockett, market analyst for IMS Research. "Marvell's new G.hn chipset promises a quality of entertainment experience above and beyond what consumers can achieve over legacy Wi-Fi, and an ease of use which trumps wired legacy connection methods that require the installation of new wires. The G.hn chipset represents Marvell's support of the G.hn standard, which offers the widest range of wireline connectivity options for consumers, and aims to provide a compelling home connectivity solution."

Product Highlights:

• Full home coverage and very high robustness expected data rates up to four times faster than legacy technologies

• G.hn provides high performance over any wire medium, including coax, phoneline and powerline in a single chipset

• Optimized for HD IPTV

• Support for bridging, smart repeating, full TCP/IP stack, IP-Multicast

• Embedded TR-069 and TR-111 remote management clients

• Security designed to meet contemporary threat model and strict power management

• Global standards-based technology promotes worldwide acceptance in the marketplace

• Coexistence with legacy products, including millions of deployed UPA devices

• Interoperability with any G.hn baseband bandplans (25, 50, 100 MHz)

• Field-proven SPIRIT firmware with powerful API to help reduce time to market and while enabling broad customization for any specific application

Related Links:

Product information

Marvell media materials 

HomeGrid Forum Announces Latest Steps To A Superfast Home Network Environment at Broadband Forum

September 27, 2011 12:09 AM in Broadband Word Forum  | 0 comments  | 0 TrackBack

The new home networking specifications G.hn (G.9960, G.9961),G.hnem for Smart Grid and G.hn-mimo (Multiple Input Multiple Output) have been finalized during 2010/2011.

These standards for wired home networking are now rapidly moving towards widescale adoption, thanks in large part to the efforts of the HomeGrid Forum and its members in promoting the standards and creating Conformance & Interoperability Programs, culminating in first certifications by the end of the year.

WHO:   John Egan, acting President of the HomeGrid Forum, will present the dynamic agenda of the Forum to bring G.hn products to market before the end of the year. He will set out the home networking and smart grid landscapes and highlight the dramatic results that can be achieved with G.hn and G.hn-mimo over powerline compared to the alternative technologies on the market.

John will presenting his views on “The Broadband Home Ecosystem” on Day 3 of the Broadband World Forum Conference in Paris on 29^th September. 

WHERE:               Broadband World Forum Europe / Paris, 27-29 September 2011

WHEN:                 Thursday 29^th September, 17.05-17.25

BRIEFINGS:         The HomeGrid Forum will also be holding face-to-face and telephone briefings throughout the Broadband World Forum event.

 

G.hn's Ecosystem Continues to Grow As Metanoia Announces New Chipset

September 22, 2011 4:09 PM in Metanoia Communications  | 1 comments  | 0 TrackBack

Metanoia Communications has just announced its new G.hn Home Networking chipset targeting consumer home networking and the global carriers’ broadband wire-line market.

  
The G.hn chipset is ITU-T G.9960 / G.9961 compliant and supports all wired media in the home (viz. Power Line, Coaxial Cable and Phone Line). It delivers up to 1 Gbps PHY rates for applications such as High Definition IPTV and triple play services (voice, video, and data). In addition, the Metanoia G.hn solution is designed to be interoperable with G.hn chips from other vendors, based on our continuous involvement in the customer supported interoperability testing over the past year and active participation in the development of the G.hn Standard.

Metanoia plans to participate in all the interoperability and certification events conducted by Home Grid Forum and expects to have a certified G.hn chip by the end of 2011. 

 
“We have received considerable early customer interest for the Metanoia G.hn chipset from several communications equipment manufacturers and large carriers. In keeping with Metanoia’s tradition of delivering superior customer support, we provide evaluation boards, development tools, and a complete software support platform to ensure that the customers can quickly and successfully develop G.hn bridge, G.hn + Wi-Fi router, VDSL2 + Wi-Fi + G.hn Gateway and G.hn power adapter solutions.” said C.T. Wu, CEO of Metanoia Communications Inc. “In addition, the company provides customers with extensive technical support by leveraging our worldwide operations.  Our goal is to quickly and efficiently assist our customers to get their G.hn products to market for various applications.”
 
In addition to G.hn, Metanoia is also a leading provider of VDSL2 broadband access solutions with several hundred thousand VDSL2 loops shipped worldwide. Metanoia’s VDSL2 solutions offer interoperability with all other VDSL2 chip vendors, while achieving excellent performance and stability in real-world deployments in the field. Today, the company also announced the addition of a new VDSL2 chipset that adds support for G.vector, G.inp and ADSL2+ backwards compatibility to the VDSL2 30a/17a/12a/8x profiles that are supported by our existing chips. Two new reference designs were also announced: a VDSL2 / ADSL2+ USB Dongle and a VDSL2 / ADSL2+ bridge modem, both with the industry’s smallest PCBs and designed to support easy plug-in with existing Wi-Fi AP routers or integration with new Wi-Fi SOC platforms. These reference platforms will provide customers with the key advantages of fast time to market and an optimal cost to performance ratio.    
 
 
Metanoia G.hn Chipset Features
 

• Compliant with ITU-T G.hn standard G.9960, G.9961.
• Supports 25MHz / 50MHz / 100MHz profiles with a maximum PHY rate of 1Gbps.
• Supports three wired mediums: Power line, Phone line and Coaxial Cable.
• Provides advanced Quality of Service (QoS), reliable performance and AES-128 Security.
• Supports up to 250 simultaneously operating nodes in a domain.
• Supports G.hn Domain Master and Security Controller functions.
• Supports advanced techniques and algorithms for Neighbor Network Interference Mitigation.

 
Metanoia VDSL2 Chipset Features
 

• Interoperable with all major VDSL2 chip vendors
• Support for VDSL2 Bandplans : 8a/8b/8d/12a/12b/17a/30a and ADSL2+
• Upstream / Downstream connection rates greater than 150 / 150 Mbps
• Compliant with ITU-T standards G.993.2 (VDSL2), G.992.x (ADSL*), G.994.1 and G.998, G.997 Bandplans
• Supports G.inp, G.vector, ROC and dual latency
• Supports OLR, UPBO, DPBO and US0
• Supports flexible QoS classification

 

 

Do You Have G.hn Related News for TelcoTV?

September 06, 2011 4:09 PM in TelcoTV 2011  | 1 comments  | 0 TrackBack

If you have G.hn related news you are announcing at TelcoTV, please reach out to me in advance so I can help you with coverage. 

Please reach out to me:  alan at weinkrantz dot com.  I honor embargos:)

 

New! Digital Home Network Now on LinkedIn. Join In.

August 30, 2011 2:08 PM  | 1 comments  | 0 TrackBack

Kudos to Bernie Arnason for creating the Digital Home Network on LinkedIn.

The group is just getting going and in advance of the upcoming Digital Home Network conference in Orlando, this would be a great community to join.  

See you in Olrando and see you online!

In the midst of the bubbling up of "new things TV...." don't forget the plumbing and infrastructure of what could be with G.hn

August 30, 2011 12:08 AM in AppleTV  | 0 comments  | 0 TrackBack

I'm tracking a resurgence in coverage about what's next in TV...

After the announcement of Steve Jobs' retirement, there were discussions and media coverage about the pending Apple TV - yes, a television, not just AppleTV the little black box that Apple currently sells.  

• In this story (and above graphic) from AppleInsider.com, the piece addresses how Apple is in the best position to win the battle for the "digital living room." UBS rates all areas in Apple's ecosystem as strong, with the exception of TV, the cloud, social networking and office suite, which were listed as "needs improvement.
  
  
• Here's a story over at GigaOm on Eric Schmidt's discussion about how Google plans to change the way we all watch TV.

• If you want a great story and insight on Steve Jobs' legacy and what could be next for TV, read what I believe is the absolute best piece from Steve Gilmoor here in TechCrunch.

In the for what it's worth department, regardless of what's next, there's one thing that for sure is next - it's the delivery of G.hn product from OEMs .... coming soon.  

Amidst the hype and prognostification what of what is next or not, the plumbing and infrastructure that G.hn will provide for is even the greater sign of things to come.

Interview With Former BBC Exec Now Head Of Intel Digital Home Group

August 25, 2011 2:08 PM in Intel  | 0 comments  | 0 TrackBack

Because of the role of HomeGrid Forum plays in the G.hn standard, it's important to track the happenings at Intel in the greater context of the home.

Silicon Valley Watcher's Tom Foremski has a very good - Smart TV focused interview in Silicon Valley Watcher with Erik Huggers  who has recently joined Intel's as its head of the Digital Home Group based in London. Huggers has been at Microsoft and most recently at the BBC as director of thedirector of the Future Media & Technology organization.

 

Global Support for G.hn Gains Ground as HomeGrid Forum's Asia Pacific and USA Membership Grows

August 25, 2011 2:08 AM  | 1 comments  | 0 TrackBack

HomeGrid Forum's membership continues to grow globally, underscoring the growing worldwide support for G.hn, and in particular highlights HomeGrid Forum's exciting growth in the Asia-Pacific region.

The new members are Taiwan-based Allion Test Labs and MitraStar, Kwangwoon University (South Korea), and Holland Electronics LLC (USA).

This announcement follows the news in July that silicon vendors Metanoia and Xingtera have also joined the move to G.hn. Over 30 other companies are now members of the HomeGrid Forum, including recent recruits such as AT&T and TRaC Global. Each member openly supports G.hn technology, with its ability to pass data at very high speeds over coaxial cable, phone lines, or power lines.

Using HomeGrid Certified G.hn-enabled systems, service providers are able to deploy advanced services, including IPTV, reliably and more cost-effectively. Consumer electronics manufacturers will be able to provide HomeGrid Certified devices throughout the house for all types of entertainment, home automation, and security.

Allion Test Labs is a global engineering service and validation consulting firm conducting certification, interoperability, performance and compatibility testing services for companies all over the world. Kitty

Chou, Senior Manager of Allion, said, "As a third-party test lab, Allion works closely with many worldwide associations of industrial standards such as USB, HDMI, SATA, PCIE, Wi-Fi, and DLNA. We look forward to our experience helping Asian vendors pass the G.hn product certification in the most efficient way."

Holland Electronics is an innovator in the CATV, SMATV, Satellite, Wireless and Fiber Optic markets specializing in connectivity, broadband distribution, head-end and installation accessories. Tony Papa, President of Holland Electronics said, "Holland Electronics is proud to be a part of such an innovative home networking technology Forum. Our long history of successful RF-based product development via coaxial networks places us in an obvious position to help develop new and efficient ways of improving the content delivery and the end user's experience through the HomeGrid Forum and use of G.hn."

Kwangwoon University was the first university to have a research institute on wireless communications and now has the largest faculty group on information technology in Korea. These days it covers many diverse areas of IT, including communications, control, signal processing, computers, networks, IT convergence, and electronic materials. Its interest in PLC technology is of particular relevance to the HomeGrid Forum.

MitraStar, formerly ZyXEL's product business unit, is a DMS (Design, Manufacturing and Service) technology company focused on advanced networking technology and products. Allen Lin, Associate VP of MitraStar said, "G.hn is a promising technology and MitraStar is committed to integrating G.hn with our products for broadband connection, home connection, and home control. As a member of the HomeGrid Forum family, we will provide G.hn products for our customers and will work with other
family members' products."

G.hn Strategies.... TV is Really Social :)

August 14, 2011 8:08 PM  | 0 comments  | 0 TrackBack

If you're an OEM / OEM developing G.hn - based innovation for products to come, pay attention to his infographics from Hasai.  

• Americans have a lot to say (48% of all bloggers are U.S.-based)
• Are very social when it comes to television (77% have used social media to share their love of a show) 
• Love video games (10% of all US-based web activity involves video games).

As you develop your G.hn products, keep social media into the mix....

 

Microsoft's Home of the Future Points to Video & Multimedia Applications

August 08, 2011 1:08 PM in Microsoft  | 0 comments  | 0 TrackBack

Microsoft has just posted this video which shows their view of the home of the future.  While the video is pretty short, it's focus is clear: everywhere you see, it's a video / multimedia centric view of what's to come and the opportunties for OEMs / ODMs planning G.hn related products.  Where do you fit into what you see below?  Leave a comment....