ITU approves 1Gbps home network standard

James Riley
Sunday, 18 October 2009 13:45

IT Industry - Strategy

As fibre roll-outs gain momentum worldwide, the International Telecommunication Union has ratified its so-called G.hn standard for new 'smart home' networks and applications.

The standard, which the ITU says will drive new applications into homes more cost effectively - including high-definition television and IP television, as well as various communications mediums – has implications for companies planning to offer services through the National Broadband Network.

In addition to delivering new services and applications through in-home devices like entertainment systems and games consoles, the standard is also expected to have a big impact on applications like telemedicine.

The ITU said G.hn compliant devices will be capable of handling rich media content at  up to 1Gbps using a variety of existing in-home wiring – from coax cable and standard phone lines to power lines. Throughput speeds would be significant greater than both existing wired and wireless technologies.

The first chip-sets using G.hn are expected to become available early next year, with devices soon after.

While the physical layer and architecture portion of the standard were approved by ITU-T Study Group 15 a week ago, the data link layer of the new standard is not expected to garner final approval until May 2010.

"G.hn is a technology that gives new use to the cabling most people already have in their homes," the ITU’s Telecommunications Standardisation Bureau director Malcolm Johnson said. "The remarkable array of applications that it will enable includes energy efficient smart appliances, home automation and telemedicine devices."

"The sheer weight of industry support behind this innovation is testament to the extraordinary potential of this standard to transform home networking," Johnson said.

Also agreed at the ITU was a new standard known as G.9972, which describes the process by which G.hn devices will work with power line devices using technologies like IEEE P1901. In addition, it said experts will develop extensions to G.hn to support SmartGrid applications.