1. What is HomeCNA's vision?

To leverage the preponderance of coaxial wire in the home as the networking medium for entertainment, voice, and data distribution in the connected home in order to establish coaxial wire as the preferred delivery mechanism for the manifestation of cyberspace in the home.

2. Is HomeCNA suitable for both data and entertainment networking?

HomeCNA is currently the only physical distribution network that will support data and entertainment networking. HomeCNA's technology approach will support numerous (analog and digital) concurrent television streams, as well as IR controls, data, and voice. Most other existing home networking and distribution technologies struggle to deliver even a single television stream. HomeCNA transforms the home coaxial wire into a multi-channel, multi-application transport throughout the home, accommodating a variety of communications among and between technology islands.

3. What are the benefits to the consumers? service providers?

Benefits to the consumers are primarily in the areas of convenience and ease of use. Assuming consumers purchase HomeCNA-certified devices at retail:

1. Compliant devices will be automatically discovered and provisioned to a baseline level, with the user solicited to fine-tune any optional device behaviors applicable to the users specific home environment. This means that consumers will not experience destructive coexistence from different technologies if they are HomeCNA compliant. In other words, consumers will not experience the frustration and inconvenience associated with purchasing a product for their home that, when installed, logically breaks something that is already working, and/or simply will not function correctly due to the presence of a non-compliant device.
2. Due to anticipated volumes, standardized HomeCNA components should drift lower as more companies include them in their compliant products, helping keep prices in line for emerging home devices and services.

Benefits to service providers are in several areas:

1. Fewer support calls from consumers due to elimination of conflicts (among non-compliant devices) on the coax wire.
2. Greater visibility into the coax as a home network media, capable of transporting traffic from different technology islands (e.g., 1394, television, stereo audio, IR control signals, DVD, etc.) throughout the home. Expanded opportunities for providing additional management services to consumers.
3. Lower cost service-enabling devices through volume-oriented price decreases of potential compliant ASICs (silicon) used in product/device adapters.
4. As a HomeCNA member, a service provider has opportunity to participate directly in shaping the "use" of the home coax wire.

4. When will HomeCNA-compliant products be available to consumers?

We are hoping to have the specification completed sometime in Q1 of 2002, enabling possible product availability to consumers in summer of 2002.

5. What kind of products will they be?

Products will reflect member industries (e.g., consumer electronics, home appliances, service providers, computers). Everything from home servers to "Ultimate Outlets" (enabling easy plug and play of various HomeCNA compliant products connecting to the coax), including traditional household appliances (e.g., washers, dryers, dishwashers, refrigerators, water heaters, HVAC) and consumer electronics (televisions, stereos, DVD/VCR players, etc.).

6. Will I need a professional to install the products or can I do it myself?

Installation is no more difficult than, say, connecting a set-top-box to your television. Certainly some consumers will find it easy to install products themselves. We expect certain member companies to imbed HomeCNA technology in their products that will target consumer installation, while other member companies (e.g., service providers, home builders) may elect to install their own (perhaps in conjunction with other more complex devices).

7. How does the HomeCNA home network interact with other home networking equipment such as powerline or wireless for example?

We expect to see vendors of these kinds of products include HomeCNA compliant technologies in their coax media adapters, which would make them compliant. Since HomeCNA specifies physical connectivity (i.e., frequency allocation for specific technologies on the coax), it will solve physical level compatibility. Many home technologies (such as those mentioned) make use of logical messaging protocols for control and data transmissions. These logical messaging protocols are where functional interoperability must be accommodated, and can accomplish interoperability through simple message translations between environments.

8. A recent survey at HomeToys.com asked "What does the industry need to do to help you "connect" your home?" Responders indicated that "Lower Prices" and "More Education" are the most important factors ... far outweighing "More Dealers", "Simpler Solutions" and "More Products". Does this agree with your view and how will HomeCNA satisfy these concerns in the near future?

Yes, this agrees with our view. HomeCNA addresses lower prices by advocating adoption, across multiple industries that sell either products or services into the home environment, of a unified specification that (through volume) can result in the development and use of volume-sensitive low-cost silicon (for coax product adaptors). Lower prices are also addressed by enabling traffic (i.e., movies, messages) from "existing" home entertainment (e.g., DVD and VCR players, set-top-boxes) and computing appliances (e.g., PCs, webpads) to be distributed anywhere in the home (wherever coax is installed).

HomeCNA addresses the "more education" issue by showing consumers how their existing coax wire can provide greater value (i.e., in addition to cable television or satellite services) by serving as a distribution transport for the devices and appliances mentioned above.

9. Please look in your crystal ball and give us a glimpse into the future. Describe a middle class "Networked Home" in the year 2005.

Nearly every appliance in the home will be connected to the Internet. Suppliers of dishwashers, water heaters, and so on will monitor the performance of their products, sense impending failures before they occur, and dispatch someone to correct the situation before the consumer is inconvenienced. Your refrigerator (and pantries in newly constructed homes) will monitor food consumption, automatically update your shopping list (and if wanted, create a remote shopping order at your local grocers for delivery), let you know when certain items have exceeded their "use by" dates, and so on.

You will be able to turn virtually any device on or off from your remote office, as well as view the status of virtually every device/appliance in your home from your office computer, or from your laptop at most airports and/or hotels. All of this will be via a user-friendly web interface showing a map of your home. The family automobile will integrate with the home (e.g., CDs in the auto will be revised with latest MP3 files or other purchased media located on home systems). You will be able to view any security (or internal) cameras located on your property through the net. You will be able to lock/unlock any door in your house from your office/remote connected facility.

There are a variety of factors that could effect introduction dates of the above capabilities and conveniences. In addition to the above, it looks probable that low-cost flat panel displays and voice-recognition/controls technologies will be available that allows you to be online virtually anywhere in the home with a simple voice command. There has been working technology in research centers for several years already that allow simple tracking of your movement within the home through your "shoes"...Implications of this? Your email screen (or television show, or chat line screen, etc.) could follow you as you move about the home. Displays that serve as pictures (which naturally will be able to provide "dynamic" art...i.e., today the Mona Lisa, tomorrow your favorite family portrait), will also be capable of delivering the Internet or television to you anywhere in the home, dynamically. Instead of a mouse and keyboard, you'll interact with cyberspace using typical voice conversation (which means you'll hear voice as well). You should be able to cause a "how to" video clip to run, wherever you might be in the home (as long as a display is present), on virtually any topic from transplanting flowers to the specs on your automobile.

Of course, HomeCNA will not "cause" the above characteristics of "connected living" to occur; however, HomeCNA is a vital step in this direction and should be viewed as an "enabler" of these capabilities coming to fruition.

Also, if the right companies from the right industries choose not to support HomeCNA, then the maturation of home technologies that could provide the above "connected living" conveniences will take considerably longer (perhaps beyond 2010 or even later). This is because, without the coordinated "physical" coexistence of products that use coax in the home (provided by the HomeCNA specification), products could arise that may "destructively coexist" (e.g., corrupt the operation of other products using the coax or simply not work because of their presence on the coax).

There is currently no standard of any kind governing the use of coax in the home other than what the local cable television company imposes with its channel lineup (which, by the way are not standard, even within the same cable operator operating in multiple markets) and/or channel lineups provided by a competing satellite entertainment service provider. Various companies are exploring ways to utilize home coax to provide Ethernet services, 1394 transport, telephone services, and so on. There is no binding force to coordinate their efforts (other than HomeCNA) that will allow these various technologies and capabilities to peacefully coexist (enabling interoperability through message protocol enhancements) on the same coax wire in the home.

The cable industry is developing a specification called CableHome, under control of their research group CableLabs, working in conjunction with various technology companies. The CableHome specification defines a suite of logical messaging protocols to extend high-speed connectivity services to various island technologies (e.g., PCs/servers, wireless devices, power-line carrier devices, etc.). This specification hopes to enable, among a variety of capabilities, the ability for cable operators to "manage" the "connected home" environment for most consumers. There is no "physical" component to this standard with regard to the use of coax wire by various island technologies. This standard extends the standard DOCSIS high-speed data service transport (i.e., cable modems) further into the home. It does specify the logical messaging protocols that vendors must use to take advantage of the extended DOCSIS services it defines, including quality of service (i.e., bandwidth guarantees) capabilities.

The CEA (Consumer Electronics Association) R7.X working groups are developing standards for interconnecting consumer electronics devices (e.g., televisions, stereos, etc.) utilizing 1394 (representing a new wire) specifications.

HomePNA has developed a specification to enhance the value of telephone wire within the home. They are currently working to port their technology to also run on coax.

HomePLUG has developed a specification to utilize power-line-carrier (electric lines) within the home for networking.

The ISDO/IEC JTC1/SC25/Working Group 1 standards group is developing a standard for "Home Electronic Systems" (HES) which includes a universal interface, a command language (appliance to appliance communications), and a gateway to link home control networks to service providers.

HomeCNA intends to collaborate with these and other initiatives to ensure that technologies destined for the home can all peacefully coexist and interoperate on coax, enhancing consumer confidence in the compatibility of these products, and helping keep prices reasonable through widespread adoption of a unifying physical specification and the enabling components it defines.

HomeCNA believes that "convenience = consumption" and that the above home technology initiatives must be coordinated atop a physical standard in order for consumer convenience to be realized.

Terry Wright has over 30 years of experience in systems, architecture, product development, and software design including operating systems, network architecture, robotics, simulation systems, defense systems, real-time subsystem control systems, and transaction processing systems. Terry is currently the Chairman of HomeCNA™, a Strategic Consultant and Advisor in telecommunications & systems, active participant in CableLabs™ CableHome™ specification development, and serves on advisory boards of Georgia Tech Broadband Institute (GTBI), BroadbandHome, Broadband Access Systems (now ADC Telecommunications), Fortress Technologies, and Channelogics. He may be reached at tlwright@ga.prestige.net .