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About / FAQ
ABOUT THE HOMEPNA ALLIANCE
HOMEPNA APPLICATIONS
FEATURES AND BENEFITS
ABOUT THE HOMEPNA ALLIANCE
Q: What is HomePNA?
A: HomePNA is an alliance of leading
technology companies working together to ensure
the adoption of a single, unified existing wire
home networking standard for triple-play service
deployments. Currently focused on operation over
coax cable and phone line, the Alliance creates
internationally recognized, open and
interoperable standards and best practices to
facilitate interoperability and convergence of
all networked IP data in the home.
Q: Is HomePNA a standards body?
A: HomePNA is not a standards body.
Rather, it relies on established global
standards organizations like the ITU to set formal standards.
Q: Who are the member companies?
A: HomePNA membership includes dozens of
international companies spanning the networking,
telecommunications, semiconductor, test
equipment, software, service provider, and
consumer electronics industries. Our member
companies include AT&T, Scientific Atlanta,
Motorola, and Conexant. HomePNA is an open
alliance and encourages all interested companies
to join.
Q: How do companies join HomePNA?
A: It’s easy, just your signature on the membership
agreement and registration form. Members pay
nominal annual dues, which cover HomePNA
expenses. There are two categories of associate
membership:
To join or learn more about member benefits,
visit our Join page.
Q: Why was HomePNA formed?
A: HomePNA was formed to ensure the
development of a consumer-friendly, low-cost,
high-speed "no-new-wires" solution for in-home
phone line and coax cable networking. Our
mission attained new meaning and importance with
the recent and evolving critical industry need
for a robust high-speed existing-wire multimedia
home networking technology capable of
distributing triple play services throughout the
home. Our goals are to achieve industry
standardization and interoperability.
Q: What does HomePNA stand for?
A: HomePNA technology was conceived for
networking in the home using existing phone
lines, so PNA originally stood for Phone line
Networking Alliance. With the release of our 3.x
specifications, HomePNA products now work with
the existing home coax wiring as well as phone
line wiring. We chose not to change our name and
refer to PNA generically as the home networking
over phone and coax line alliance.
Q: What specifications does HomePNA develop?
A: HomePNA develops MAC and Physical
layer protocol specifications for networking
over existing wires. We also develop
specifications for certification testing and for
the critical passive components that are
required to implement a HomePNA-compatible
device to facilitate the development of
high-performance products and increase
end-consumer satisfaction.
Q: What are the first- and second-generation
specifications?
A: The first generation specification is
HomePNA's 1.0, which operates at 1 Mbps. The 1.0
technology was released in the fall of 1998.
The 2.0 specification is a faster 32 Mbps
technology that features priority-based quality
of service also referred to as class of service
(CoS) and is fully backward compatible with the
1 Mbps technology. The 2.0 specification was
published on December 1, 1999 and standardized
by the ITU.
Q: What are the advantages of HomePNA 3.1?
A: Building on the industry-leading
HomePNA 3.0 specification, HomePNA 3.1 enables
service providers to simultaneously distribute
triple-play IPTV, voice and Internet data
services as well as other networked
entertainment data in the home at even higher
speeds while keeping costs low.
With 320 Mbps data rates, HomePNA home networks
can accommodate the future bandwidth
requirements of service providers as they
enhance their offerings with additional features
and capabilities. HomePNA 3.1 operates over coax
cable as well as phone wires and provides
multi-spectrum operation, adding VDSL
coexistence to the ADSL, POTs and broadcast TV
channel spectrum coexistence provided by the
HomePNA 3.0 specification. Multi-spectrum
operation also allows multiple HomePNA networks
to coexist on the same wiring in the home.
Q: Are there any
established standards for home phone line and
coax cable networking?
A: Yes, there are currently four
established ITU Recommendations for home phone
line and coax cable networking.
In 2005, HomePNA announced the formal approval
by the ITU of Recommendation G.9954, which
standardized the HomePNA 3.0 specification, a
critical technical milestone creating a single,
worldwide standard for high performance
multimedia home networking. This standard covers
extensions and enhancements to the networking
technology defined by existing ITU
Recommendations G.989.1, G.989.2, and G.989.3.
Recommendation G.989.1 (Phone line Networking
Transceivers - Foundation), based on HomePNA 2
technology, was the first to cover
specifications for home phone line networking,
detailing key characteristics of devices
designed for the transmission of data over
existing phone line wiring within the home.
Recommendation G.989.2 covers the payload format
and link layer requirements for phone line
networking transceivers and Recommendation
G.989.3 covers the isolation function of phone
line networking transceivers.
Together, these standards address the
requirements for reliable transport of multiple,
high-speed multimedia streams over existing home
phone and coax wiring. ITU Recommendations are
available from the ITU.
Q: How can I get HomePNA's technical
specifications?
A: Join HomePNA as an "Adopter" or
"Participant" member, and gain access to the
specifications.
Q: What types of HomePNA products are
available now?
A: HomePNA network-enabled products
available today include residential gateways, IP
set-top boxes, Ethernet to HomePNA bridges,
optical network terminals (ONTs), and telco test
equipment. These products are available to or
through service providers. HomePNA 3 enabled
products will be available from retail outlets
in the future.
Q: How does HomePNA ensure interoperability
between various products?
A: HomePNA has a rigorous two-stage
testing and certification methodology for
interoperability. First, member companies
perform extensive testing to verify
functionality and conformance to the HomePNA
certification specifications. Second, HomePNA
checks products to ensure that they comply with
critical parameters. Interoperability testing
sessions take place with other HomePNA certified
products in regularly scheduled “Plugfests.”
When products pass the certification process,
they receive HomePNA’s official "seal of
approval” and may use the HomePNA logo.
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HOMEPNA APPLICATIONS
Q. What are “triple-play” services?
A. Triple-play services are voice
(phone), video (TV) and Internet access
delivered by the same service provider and
packaged for the consumer at a single,
economical price. Wireless phone service could
be bundled into the package to add a fourth
service.
Q: Can HomePNA be used in multi-tenant and
multi-dwelling units (MTU and MDU)?
A: HomePNA 3 technology is a very
cost-effective alternative to other MTU and MDU
access applications. The technology’s
capabilities enable products with advanced
features required for this application while
remaining low cost compared to alternatives such
as DOCSIS. The ability to operate over both
phone wires and coax cable adds deployment
flexibility.
Q: What percentage of home consumers can
implement home networking over phone lines?
A: The technology operates with computers
and devices up to 1,000 feet apart and is ideal
for homes up to 10,000 square feet (99.5 percent
of homes in the U.S.). Signal propagation over
coax is even better than over phone line.
Q: How many devices can be connected to the
network?
A: The HomePNA 3 specification supports
up to 63 devices on a network.
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FEATURES AND BENEFITS
Q: What are the benefits of home networking?
A: The benefits of home networking
include:
-
Distribution of digital real
time entertainment data such as IPTV
throughout the house, which includes IPTV
received from a service provider over
broadband as well as data that originates
within a home such as from a PVR
- Simultaneous Internet access
for multiple computers and users
- VoIP deployment within the
home
- Printer, scanner, and other
peripheral sharing
- File and application sharing
across laptop to desktop, laptop to PDA,
laptop to laptop, etc.
- Easy file backup and
restoration from networked PCs or storage
devices
- Networked gaming
Q: What is Guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS)?
A: Guaranteed QoS is a necessity for
deploying new services such as broadcast quality
IPTV. “Real time” data such as this is often
streamed to a customer’s home for display on a
TV screen without interruption. Unlike computer
data, the nature of the real time data does not
allow it to be re-transmitted if it is in error.
It must also arrive at the display device when
it is required to avoid glitches on the screen.
With Guaranteed QoS, data is sent to the client
with a predetermined error rate, jitter and
latency.
Q. What does “no new wires” home networking
mean?
A. The home network operates over
existing phone lines and coax cable. Consumers
can enjoy high-speed services without expensive
wiring installation that puts holes in walls and
floors.
Q: Doesn’t wireless technology already do
this?
A: Wireless technologies such as
802.11a/b/g/n cannot provide the reliability or
high effective data rates (referred to as user
throughput) and low error rates required to
deploy new services such as IPTV over an entire
home. Consumers have a low tolerance for
transmission errors and tend to file complaints
or drop service when the service experiences
glitches. Although wireless home networking
continues to grow in Internet access
applications, its limitations prevent it from
becoming the leading technology for triple-play
offerings for most service-provider
installations. Wireless technologies complement
and interoperate with HomePNA providing a mobile
interconnect for PCs and cordless phones.
Q: Why is operation over both phone line and
coax cable important?
A: Operation over coax and phone line can
lower installation costs by allowing every coax
and phone jack to be a potential network
connection. Cable adoption in the home is far
from universal, while almost every home and MTU
unit in America and much of the rest of the
world has phone lines installed. In addition,
the coax installed in an MTU or MDU may be the
property of the building’s owner who already has
a contract to provide TV services. Operation
over phone line can provide a service provider
with an alternate means of access to customers
who live in MDUs and MTUs.
Q: What about networking over powerlines?
A: As with wireless, powerline home
networking involves sending high-speed signals
over a very poor unregulated medium that is
susceptible to interference from many sources
making it unsuitable for deploying many
real-time high data rate video streams in a
home.
Q: What are the benefits of
HomePNA 3 certified solutions?
A: HomePNA technology provides the
fastest no-new-wires data rates of up to 320
Mbps on existing phone lines and coax cables.
Benefits include:
- Lower costs to providers AND
consumers through bundled service delivery
- Lowest equipment costs
- Works seamlessly in
virtually all varieties of home wiring
situations
- Easy to install and set up
- Highest data rates (up to 320 Mbps)
- True Guaranteed QoS "Triple play service" - voice, video, and
data
- Builds on field-proven
HomePNA 1 and 2 technologies with over five
million nodes shipped since 1999
- Open standard recognized by the ITU
Q: Is HomePNA networking compatible with
other technologies such as wireless, DSL, cable
modem, and satellite?
A: A key objective of HomePNA is to
coexist with all available and emerging home
Internet access solutions. HomePNA 3 can coexist
with analog telephone service (POT, ISDN, ADSL).
It also coexists with VDSL, broadcast television
channels, and satellite services over coax.
HomePNA 3 does not, however, coexist with DOCSIS.
When installing a cable modem in the same home
as HomePNA 3, the cable modem should be isolated
on a separate coax “drop.”
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