DSL empowered home networking

Home networking is the new buzzword around broadband digital subscriber line (DSL) deployment, and it means different things to different people. As broadband DSL continues to proliferate our society with a way to always stay connected to the information superhighway, home networking allows us to share that connection within the home. Different reasons exist for wanting to share this DSL connection, but Internet sharing is at the top of every analyst's list. Below is a breakdown of the technology used for the broadband connection, and you can see that DSL is by far the No. 1 delivery mechanism for broadband to the home.

The number of networked homes using broadband DSL continues to grow, as consumer needs become more complex and the ease of carrying out many tasks online creates dependence on the high-speed Internet connection. Internet sharing, printer sharing, file sharing, telecommuting and others are just a few examples of the areas of interest that have driven consumers to install a home network backed by DSL.

"Home networking is still the killer application for BellSouth's FastAccess DSL customers--about 60% of them have multiple home computers and seek a home networking solution," states Randy Kinkaid, senior director of consumer broadband sales and marketing at BellSouth. "We believe the critical ingredients to increasing consumer adoption of home networking are convenience and easy plug-and-play installation, which BellSouth feels is priced affordably so all household members can reap the benefits DSL offers."

Products are continually rolling out to take advantage of this broadband pipe to the consumer, and the networked home is the centerpiece of delivery. This was clearly evident at the last Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, where many innovative networked home products were promoted.

Products focused on delivering streaming video and audio, distributed throughout the home were the talk on the floor during the show. One clear area of growth and opportunity for high-bandwidth content service providers that has emerged is delivering streaming video or other types of multi-media products to the growing pool of broadband DSL users today.

As new content and services are being developed to take advantage of this broadband DSL connection to the consumer, more and more people will use these additional products and services to enhance their "online experience" and improve the way they live today. DSL and home networking drive each other toward enhancing the services we use today. Below is an example of how broadband enhances the different services and how the networked home enhances them even more. It is clear that by having a home network, the consumer can take advantage of the various services and product offerings that make these enhancements a true reality.

Home networking will clearly be the catalyst for bringing these DSL-enabled services to the consumer. Service providers are quick to understand this as well. Most carriers see home networking as a means to provide the "stickiness" that will reduce overall broadband DSL subscriber churn. By providing the tools and support for a networked home, providers penetrate deeper into the home network environment rather than just becoming an access point for the actual broadband DSL connection or WAN side of the network. This additional exposure anchors the service provider in the consumer's mind as an all-inclusive provider of broadband DSL products and content. Even if the content comes from a third-party provider, the perception is set, and the carrier is perceived as a broadband DSL partner instead of just another monthly bill.

Couple this with additional content that solidifies the value proposition of the broadband DSL connection, and a long-term customer who can't live without his or her DSL emerges. This will parlay into adding additional services such as video-on-demand (VOD) and voice-over-IP (VoIP). This "triple play," as it is being called in the broadband DSL space, will become the normal package of choice for the consumers who want to take advantage of their broadband DSL connection. The simplicity of getting this from one provider is an even more valuable proposition.

The next step in enjoying these advanced services within the home is to make them available to all computers/devices in the home network. Let's look at a typical networked home with two computers:

In the diagram above, the DSL modem gets the data to/from the Internet and the router makes it possible for both computers in the home network to share access to this single Internet connection. Besides a fast Internet connection, these two computers can also share a single printer or scanner, files and music (MP3s), and can even play high-speed video games.

Although using wires (as shown in the diagram above) within a single room is simple and very cost-effective, today we have several effective alternatives to provide connectivity in other rooms within the house:

• Wi-Fi: Also known as 802.11x, provides wireless connectivity within the house

• HomePNA: Allows concurrent use of phone conversations and high-speed data transmission on existing telephone wiring--data available in all phone jacks within the home

• HomePlug: Uses existing power cables within the house to send high-speed data to all electrical outlets within the home.

These technologies are not exclusive. As the following diagram shows, wires (Ethernet) can be used for computers in room No. 1; HomePNA for rooms No. 2 and No. 3; and Wi-Fi for Laptops and/or tablets. Users can mix and match according to the specific requirements and/or structural limitations.

Several wireless standards were proposed, but Wi-Fi or 802.11x has been widely accepted as the defacto standard in the industry. Depending on bandwidth, several flavors of 802.11 take advantage of different frequency spectrum to provide data rates up to 54Mb/s. BellSouth, for instance, will customize networking configurations to meet each customer's individual requirements and lifestyles without rewiring the house.

Kinkaid continues, "By allowing our customers to combine both wireless and wired solutions, they can have Internet access wherever it is needed within the home. With the home network in place, parents can surf the Web or exchange emails from a laptop while sitting beside their pool or watching TV on the couch, while their children do homework online or instant message friends--all with the speed of DSL, and without typing up the home phone line."

Other technologies such as Ultra Wide Band and Bluetooth will also play a role in providing additional wireless services within the home. The following graph shows how 802.11x compares to other technologies in both effective range (distance) and in performance (bandwidth):

More and more product manufacturers have taken notice of this wave of excitement and have developed, or are developing products that use 802.11x to deliver and share bandwidth to devices such as audio/video servers, cordless VoIP phones, broadcast TV, VOD systems and others. Most of the major consumer electronics manufacturers such as Panasonic, Samsung, Sony, Intel, and others have shown a desire to place 802.11x technology in just about every consumer electronics product available. For instance, envision a DVD player, personal video recorder, satellite receiver, home stereo system, TV/HDTV, portable video viewers and others as a part of one overall home network environment. Couple this with a DSL broadband connection to create a broadband DSL-enabled home entertainment system.

DSL Forum understands this growth opportunity and focuses on providing standards and best practices to enable manufacturers and service providers a roadmap for mass-deployment of DSL-enabled enhanced services. Through the DSL Forum's "DSL Home" initiative, both the technical and marketing working groups are working together to provide a fast path to rolling out standards and specifications for products and services that will become the standard for the DSL-enabled home network environment.

Despite the downturn in the "teleconomy", service providers continue to make investments in their respective broadband networks. Today, more than 36 million global users have chosen DSL as their access technology. More and more of these consumers see the value of the DSL-enabled broadband home and are embracing the option of having a DSL-enabled networked home.

As the broadband world gets bigger, the range of applications and content designed for always on, high-speed electronic communication grows. The potential growth of broadband-networked homes is simply boundless. Broadband is clearly here to stay, and service providers around the globe are fast tracking new home network bundles to ride this wave of technology advancement. All this adds up to one thing--the consumer wins, as anyone with a DSL broadband connection will tell you--now that they have it, there is no way they could be without it. 

Tom Starr is Chairperson & President of DSL Forum, and also Sr. Member of Technical Staff at SBC.

Visit the DSL Forum online.