ITU Approves G.hn Standard for Wired Home Networks
November 5, 2009 // Published as a news service by IHS
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approved G.hn, a technical standard for home networking systems and applications.
The standard is designed to enable service providers to deploy offerings such as high definition (HD) TV and digital Internet Protocol TV (IPTV), according to ITU.
G.hn will also allow consumer electronics manufacturers to provide the capability to network home entertainment, home automation and home security products.
G.hn-compliant devices are promoted as being capable of handling multimedia content at speeds of up to 1 GBps over household wiring options, including coaxial cable and standard phone and power lines.
The physical layer and architecture portion of the standard were approved by ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Sector Study Group 15 in October. The data link layer of the new standard is expected to garner final approval at the group's next meeting in May 2010.
The Home Grid Forum, a group set up to promote G.hn, is developing a certification program with the Broadband Forum that will aid semiconductor and systems manufacturers in building and bringing standards-compliant products to market with products that conform to the G.hn standard bearing the Home Grid-certified logo.
The ITU also approved G.9972, which focuses on coexistence between G.hn-based products and those using other technologies. The standard describes the process by which G.hn devices will work with power line devices that use technologies such as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) P1901.
Source: International Telecommunication Union (ITU).