Latest Developments and Use Cases in the Digital Home
Broadband World ForumSeptember 2011
David Thorne, HGI Board [email protected]
“CONNECTING HOMES – ENABLING SERVICES”
Contents
Brief introduction to the HGI
What role can the HG play in an OTT Smartphone Cloudworld ?
Next generation services
The HG as an applications platform
The HG and Home Energy Management
HG Testing
HGI Diagnostics
Conclusions
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Introduction to the HGI
Formed in 2004 by leading Broadband Service Providers who recognised the benefits of a common approach to specifying the functionality of Home Gateways
Starts with business propositions or Use Cases
Close interworking between BSPs, chip makers, and box vendors
Output is a set of functional specifications ranging from the basic to the state of the art:
interfaces, QOS, energy efficiency, multi-session support….
These can then be used by BSPs as part of their procurement specifications
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HGI: Connecting Homes, Enabling ServicesNEC
The Role of the HG in the new service world
High functionality, managed HGs were predicated on BSPs being able to sell Value Added Services, in particular video services, via STBs
Then along came...
The Smart Phone
The Tablet
OTT video
The Cloud………
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Potential HG Advantages
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• Associated with a fixed location
• Unlike mobile devices, which are associated with a person, and laptops
Always there
• Normally powered on, and little power penalty in being so
• Unlike PCs, laptopsAlways on
• Only one device of its type in a home
• Simple, stable OS
• Wide range of interface types
Single, central point
of control
Do these translate into viable services ????
HG Service Advantages
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• Services associated with the home as a location
• Home energy management, security, home health
Always there
• Services which require 24/7 connectivity
• Home energy management, security, home health, home comms, home storage
Always on
• Services which rely on a single, ‘simple’, central control point
• Home energy management, security, home networking control, diagnostics
Single, central point
of control
HGI 2011 Service Examples
Home Energy Management
Next-Generation Communications
DECT and High Definition Voice
Home and Cloud storage
Home and Cloud Media Gateway
Enhanced in-home QoS as a service supporter
Service specific diagnostics if it doesn’t quite work
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Storage - Home and Cloud
If everything is in the Cloud, then when the Cloud goes away there is nothing….
Need co-operation between the Home and Cloud
HG can keep or manage local copies of key files
HG can do scheduled, incremental back-ups to the Cloud
HG can manage file access from anywhere by any device (includes streaming media)
HG can control user access to files from one single point – both local and remote access
HG as the Media Home Gateway
Deliver content, both user and premium content to retail devices.
Media gateway can adapt content for different CPE devices
Need to handle: DRM, Link protection Content adaption for different devices. User experience (remote user interface) Value added features: time shift, resume on new device,
etc. Metadata management
Next generation communication
Phone Service Provider
Mobile operator
Bringing communication services to home devices
CE device
Voice devices
3G phone
Gateway
3G
CAT-iq
VoIP
CAT-iq Portable device
Target Devices
PSTN
Legacy phone(PSTN)
PSTN
LAN side Technology (to support WAN side communication Service)
- UPnP telephony- SIP- CAT-iq (DECT-IP)
RCS
DECT
The HG as an applications platform
Current HGs typically have locked down, monolithic firmware
good for security, bad for flexibility and innovation
HGs now much less limited on processing power and memory
HG could be used as a platform for 3rd party applications
as long as all the security and performance issues are addressed
not a full-blown Smartphone apps environment
diagnostics and HEM are prime examples of what might make more sense
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S/W Modularity as a Service Enabler Framework for application support on HGs providing reliability,
security, life cycle management and remote management Known as SWEX, but strongly based on OSGi
Smart
Energy
E-health …
Home Energy Management
Use Cases
Visualization of current energy and power data
Visualization of historical data
Alarms for different events
Home Domain overload management and avoidance
Optimising energy cost
End User Control
Demand response
ranging from tariff variation, though phased usage to power-down
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HEM Business model…is complex
Tbd…..
• Security
• Privacy
• Data ownership
• Auto-configuration
• Addressing
• Performance
• Technology selection(s)
• Device abstraction
• APIs
Home Architecture with Energy Gateway
SI
HANx(Home Area Network)
HANy
HN(Home Network)
Energy
Gateway
Home
Gateway
Home Domain
IFx IFwIF4IF2
IF3IF6
IF1
IF5
Smart
Meter
Smart
Info
GW/EM
Smart Appliance
Smart Appliance
Appliance
Smart Plug
Appliance
Smart Plug
Local Display
User Interface
User Interface
Smart Appliance
Device Abstraction, A View
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Z-wave
EHS
ZigBee
KNX
SML
Wireles
M-Bus
Switches
etc.
smart, smarter,
smartest Meters…HomeMatic, EQ3/FS20
ready IP-Camera
support
all relevant
Smart Home standards
One phys. device,
several abstract
objects
standard OSGi
Eventing (into Java)
routed to JSON/RPC
Java, JSON, RPC
HGI Testing
HGI Testing is NOT
Certification
Interop testing
Designed to test the market status of the more advanced HGI features
QOS, Energy Efficiency, multi-session support, SWEX…
With performance testing where appropriate
performance not currently included in most HGI requirements – they are mainly functional
Organised as an annual test event
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HGI Test Program 2009 and 2010 events were both a great
success
2011 happening soon
Service Providers Pre-qualification of HGs and chips
Understand state of the art of the cutting edge features
Common service provider metrics and procedures
HG System, Chip and Software Vendors Prequalify with Service Providers
Marketing based on test event results
Understand leading edge performance requirements and how they compare
LOGO Program is available to participants19
Test Plan Updates for 2011
Higher performance (Gigabit Ethernet)
More IPv6 testing
DLNA media server/controller performance
SWEX robustness
Multisession overload and critical session handling
Diagnostics
Future test directions
Include Home network infrastructure devices
Separate, more formal procurement testing specification
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HGI Diagnostics
Diagnostics increasingly important as services become an arbitrarily complicated mix of managed video, OTT video, and in-home comms running over time-variant in-home technologies (WiFi and PLC)
Primary aim is to avoid support calls, and employ as much customer self-help and expert system assistance as possible
System builds up a history of performance, usage, connectivity etc. and provides access to real-time service specific monitoring
Remote access to the HG and network provided when help-desk assistance is needed
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HGI Diagnostics Overview
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Conclusions
The Home Environment is becoming increasingly complex from a technology and services perspective
Competition and traffic from OTT and Smartphone based services will increase, and revenue opportunities may be limited
The HG has some inherent features which should allow it to continue to play a key role in this complex ecosystem, and enable new services
The HGI brings together the key industry sectors needed to make this happen in a unique way
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Follow-up
Contact
www.homegateway.org
Next HGI meetings
Q4 Dubrovnik, Croatia
Q1/2012 Taipei
Join us on Linkedin
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/HGI-Home-Gateway-Initiative-News-3894101?trk=myg_ugrp_ovr
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Thankyou
Any Questions ?