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Enikia’s IAN-Information
Appliance Network In general, consumers want services or applications, not technology. For example, a consumer will purchase a cellular phone for the luxury of having a phone accessible at all times. They will go to a service provider and purchase cellular service, and in turn, receive a phone by one of the selected phone manufacturers. |
O'Sullivan joined Enikia in 1998 as Associate Product Manager and is responsible for the development and implementation of deployment strategies for next-generation, multi-layer home networking technologies. Prior to joining Enikia, O'Sullivan worked as a freelance consultant specializing in planning solutions for decentralized work environments. |
As technology continues to develop with the promise of enhancing people’s professional and social lives, we begin to wonder how much of the promise will become reality. Many companies are announcing products that move computing beyond the scope of a beige-box computer. As opposed to the general purpose PC of today, the information appliances of the future will be small, inexpensive consumer devices that are optimized to perform a specialized set of user-centric functions (such as a portable Internet phone that has personal e-mail and Web browsing capabilities).
With current desktop PC penetration reaching less than half of US households, it is difficult to see how this technology revolution will ever reach the masses of mainstream society. The concept of "pervasive computing" has emerged as a vision for the future where people will be able to connect and communicate at anytime from anywhere, using information appliance devices. But before pervasive computing becomes part of daily life, many factors must be in place to make this vision a reality.
Home Networking
Recent advancements in the home networking market promise the arrival of a new era in consumer computing, marked by the emergence of high-speed, multi-layer, intra-home networks that will integrate traditional home automation and control technologies, like X-10 and CEBus, with powerful broadband applications like voice and video. More importantly, these new advancements do not just involve new technology, but also new deployment strategies to bring both home automation and new broadband applications to the mainstream mass market.
The realization of such a pervasive technology revolution within the
mainstream market involves a mix of cross-industry strategic planning that will connect an
extremely complex network of interest groups. Consumer electronics, appliances,
telecommunications, computing, services, utilities, chip manufacturers, ISPs, home
entertainment, etc. will all come together to solve this intricate puzzle. This is an
entirely new juxtaposition of historically separate technologies and industries.
Additionally, this vision requires a simplified consumer marketing strategy that focuses
on customer solutions instead of technologies – the services will sell the
technology.
Enikia Incorporated, Piscataway, NJ, has developed a technology solution to assist in bringing pervasive computing to reality. With Enikia’s home networking technology, anything that uses electrical power can now be connected to the Internet. Enikia has discovered a way to deliver data over the lines that previously delivered only electricity. Every home is already wired for the network and access points are available on nearly every wall. All home electronics equipment and appliances are already connected to it.
Enikia’s Solution -The Home Infostructure™
The Home Infostructure represents the link between the next generation of Internet-based content/service providers and the end consumers. More than just a connection to the Internet, the Home Infostructure serves as the technology platform that will enable an entirely new generation of user applications, including voice and video communications, e-commerce solutions, personalized news services, home security and automation, utilities resource management, and entertainment title distribution. The Home Infostructure holds significant economic importance to businesses because it serves as mass-market distribution platform that can deliver digital media content and value-added services directly into the hands of the home consumer. This will in turn "sell" the technology.
In general, consumers want services or applications, not technology. For example, a consumer will purchase a cellular phone for the luxury of having a phone accessible at all times. They will go to a service provider and purchase cellular service, and in turn, receive a phone by one of the selected phone manufacturers. They do not go directly to the phone manufacturer. The consumer has purchased a service.
Enikia’s technology will be delivered with a similar model. If a consumer wants the luxury of a personalized newspaper, they may subscribe to a next generation news service that aggregates content and then personalize it (using filtering agents). A printer may be bundled with the service which will connect to the Internet and print the daily paper for the consumer in the comfort of their own home. In this example, the costs of the printer device is bundled together with the service package into a comprehensive subscription plan.
The Home Infostructure involves the integration of three distinct, yet important components: 1) broadband or "fat pipes" that bring high-speed Internet access to the home, 2) a home gateway that connects the Internet to the home network, and 3) IAN-Information Appliance Network™ which distributes Internet content to ubiquitous access points throughout the home. With this combination, the Home Infostructure will effectively bring Internet access to information appliances connected at any electrical outlet in the home.
IAN- Information Appliance Network
Enikia’s IAN- Information Appliance Network functions as a secure, reliable, and ubiquitous high-speed intra-home data backbone, which solves an important component of the Home Infostructure deployment strategy. Enikia’s IAN is the only home networking technology that meets the speed and access point ubiquity requirements necessary to support the multitude of information appliances that will be used within the home. Additionally, Enikia’s IAN has integrated sophisticated security, remote management, Quality of Service (QoS), and reliability features to help ensure its viability as a practical and easy-to-implement mass-market technology solution.
By using Enikia’s technology, next-generation appliances, computers, and electronic devices will be able to communicate with one another. This enables applications such as home automation, resource sharing, centralized information access, and distributed media entertainment systems. With the rollout of high-speed Internet access to residential consumers, Enikia’s technology will effectively bring high-speed bandwidth to every electrical outlet in the home. This enables powerful new services including remote home network management, multiple-user high-speed Internet access, and IP-based video and voice communications.
Consumers are beginning to demand these applications. Enikia’s solution is the connection that is necessary between the Internet and the home – enabling high-speed data transfer around the home, hence, these applications (as well as applications that we have not yet invented!)
Corporate Overview
Enikia Incorporated is a privately held company headquartered in Piscataway, New Jersey. Founded in 1997, Enikia provides high-speed home network backbone technology. Enikia’s experienced business and technology teams, with several successful start-up companies to their credit, invested two years of R&D to realize their vision of an elegant home networking solution that was reliable, ubiquitous, inexpensive, and easy for the end-user to operate. Enikia is currently discussing product plans with business partners and people who share the vision of fully integrated home networks.
