*** CCNC 2004
By John Latta
January 6-7
Las Vegas, Nevada
This is the first CCNC conference, having been put together in only 9
months. Yet, even from the first day, it has shown the value of focusing
on technology in a public forum and not getting mired in PR hype. Now
some highlights.
Panasonic
It is infrequent that one hears the details of a home networking
strategy from an individual in such a position as Yoshiaki Kushiki,
Managing Director and Member of the board of Matsushita Electric
Industrial Co. His presentation was entitled “Guiding Digital Network
Technology into the Consumer World.” One of the most informative aspects
was the video which showed the Panasonic vision on how, in 2008, a
digital network could impact the home and family. This was a scenario
about the finding and placement of a puppy. In it examples were shown
of:
Ultra-Thin Image Communicator
Smart-Wall TV
Personal Identification based on biometrics
Pendant Communicator
Services Navigation System
Personal Navigator
Healthcare Bracelet
Energy Management System
Robo Cleaner
One value of this video is that it showed that CE devices do not exist
in isolation but are supported by complex and integrated services. It
remains to be seen how Panasonic will either support the development of
such an infrastructure or provide it.
In the Ubiquitous Network Panasonic placed emphasis on what consumers
are concerned about:
Safety and Security for
Information and content
Network and
Services
There is also a chasm in realizing this Ubiquitous Network. In
Panasonic’s view the PC is responsible for much of this. It has three
problems:
Specialized skills required
Network security is poor and
PC is inconsistent with some locations in the home such as the living
room and kitchen
Thus, there is a clear need for consumer devices which avoid the
limitations of the PC and which can bridge the chasm. The Panasonic
solution is Digitally Networked Consumer Electronics. The foundation of
this is the DNA which makes CE devices successful:
Easy to connect and secure to use;
Instant availability
Human interface and
User friendly
Panasonic is already implementing this strategy in Japan. They have
released products which include:
Networked Digital TV
Networked DVD recorder which can be controlled by a cellular phone
Networked camera and home gateway and
CE controller for networked white goods
Wireless plays a key role in the strategy, supporting both 802.11g and
802.11a. A 400MHz radio is also used for appliance control. More
interesting is the role that power line could play. Kushiki-son cited
Home Plug 2.0 which will support a signaling rate of 190Mb/s and thruput
of 100Mb/s. This would enable a mixed mode system which combined
wireless and power line.
Panasonic also sees the need for “Ultra Hi-Speed Wireless.” Two new
wireless technologies are MIMO and UWB. He predicted that MIMO would
enable 100Mb/s by 2005 and be applied to cellular systems by 2010. UWB
would support 1 GB/s by 2010.
Kushiki-son also described a role for agent technologies, including
Interface Agent, Interpreter Agent and a CE Agent. It was expected that
the CE network would automatically determine the user need and
conditions for such agents.
TNO
TNO, an independent research organization in Netherlands, described a
research study on Residential Gateways. The focus was to determine:
The role of RG,
How to unbundle the RG from the home networking technology value chain
and
The internetworking and interoperability requirements
The study examined many RG products. One product of the work was a RG
classification model. The model was, in part based on the OSI network
model.
This work is important in that it looks at the RG issues from an
equipment provider perspective and seeks to understand where the market
is going.
OSGi
OSGi seems to have gone silent over the last few years but in a short
presentation that was certainly not the impression given today. This is
an alliance and not a standards body. The focus in on creating a
solution infrastructure based on creating an OSGi Service Delivery
Platform. Release 3 of this platform came out in April 2003. The intent
of this platform is:
To provide an open software standard for service providers, device
manufactures, and others to remotely and dynamically deliver, integrate
and manage a rich set of services to the building, Mobil, vehicle and
other environments.
UWB
One of the more interesting presentations was given by David Leeper,
Chief Technologist, Intel Capital, Ultrawideband Networking Operation.
He cited a recent statement by FCC Commissioner, Michael Powell, in the
recent NPRM ET 03-108.
On a real-time basis, smart radios determine their location and
environment, have the flexibility to select the best frequencies to use,
know how to avoid interference with existing users, and can use vacant
spectrum channels.
A very interesting graph was shown of near real-time radio that operated
in “Sculpted” spectrum. It asked the question – Foreshadowing Things to
Come? Such a radio was stated to be possible with the combination of
UWB, OFDM and Smart Radios.
Wireless Mesh Networking for the Digital Home
Presentations were given by Sony, MSR, Philips Research and Intel.
Sony
Shin Saito of Sony Japan R&D, Ubiquitous Technology Laboratory, asked
the question – What’s the appropriate approach to CE-Wireless Mesh
Networking? Sony’s mission statement is that now is the time to
establish CE-Wireless Mesh Networking into all CE products. The
advantages of mesh networking it that it enables a dynamic network with
no user involvement, is decentralized and ad-hoc. From a user
perspective the equipment must be “easy to get smart.” The conventional
networking equipment style is not acceptable to the consumer. The need
is for zero-configuration and automatic authentication and security key
setting. A requirement for network association and device discovery of
<1 second was stated. Bluetooth was cited and an unacceptable solution
to this problem.
Sony’s assessment of mesh networking has resulted in the creation of
CW-Net (Consumer Wireless Network) Project
This project in Sony has a very broad impact, especially in technology
development areas. An example was cited of one research path included:
UWB Mesh
All CMOS Integration
Middleware development
Microsoft
Richard Draves gave a presentation on the work being done at MSR in mesh
networking. This was in two parts. The first described the value of mesh
networking in enabling robust community networks. A user interface
example was shown of how communities could be enabled where there is a
shared network. Examples were shown of both community created content
and commercial content. Apparently under the code name Chen this
provided an interesting example of the role that a PC could play on such
a network.
The second part of the presentation described an 802.11a mesh network
set up in Building 113 to test mesh network performance. The only result
shown was a plot of TCP Throughput vs. Path Length. It was surprising
that hop length could actually be used to improve performance.
Philips Research
Jorg Habetha gave an interesting presentation on the Philips view. This
was broken into four parts:
Home Networking
Automotive – Vehicle to Vehicle
Meshed Public Infrastructure Networking
Peer-to-Peer Content Sharing
The rationale given for a Home Wireless mesh is that it can be
implemented in homes, such as Europe, which are difficult to service
with current wireless technology, customer installation is much easier
that traditional AP based networks; it is possible to bridge between
various types of wireless technology and even including powerline.
One of the most interesting applications for mesh is in vehicle to
vehicle communications. This is for safety and what is called “Wireless
Local Danger Warning.” Such a network would allow cars to communicate
autonomously on road dangers. It is claimed that the major automobile
companies have projects underway. An effort is underway also in 802.11
for set up a working group. When the question was asked – why? The
answer was given that:
Such a system could avoid 17% of all accidents and save 46% of the
micro-economic costs.
Government programs seek to reduce road fatalities by 50% by 2010.
A case was also made for a public meshed network. This would also
include Mobil access for pedestrians and automobiles.
The peer to peer networking was combined with public networking for a
very interesting application called Opportunity Scout. This used a cute
bull’s eye interface to show how mesh networking could scout out
devices, people and content and show there proximity based on relevance
to the individual. Impressive.
Intel
Lakshman Krishnamurthy of the Communications Technology Lab, Intel give
a presentation on Standards based Mesh Networking for the Digital Home.
One of the factors cited, now multiple times in this panel, is that mesh
due to its ad hoc nature has a much higher ease of use for consumers.
The talk focused on a test run in home which used multiple AP to test
mesh network performance. It was claimed that single node throughput
increase, multi-node throughput increased and that latency went up by
only a factor of 2ms.
These results were quite interesting but only a sample of what needs to
be done to test the value and performance of home mesh networks.
It is expected that shortly a working group will be formed in IEEE to
set a standard for mesh networking.
Motorola
The keynote was given by Jed Johnson, Director of Systems Engineering,
Motorola Broadband Communications Sector. Key points from the
presentation include:
Based on Motorola’s research the value of broadband to the home is based
on three factors:
To be entertained;
To be informed and
To be connected.
These three factors are at the center of all of the product strategy.
Motorola is building a wireless handheld device that allows consumers to
remain connected to AOL IM anywhere in the home.
A central thrust of the Motorola business model is around the managed
home gateway. The intent is to provide universal network connectivity,
always-on applications, customizable platform and for the management of
devices.
The first product which fully reflects this direction is the MS1000
Managed Application Gateway. This platform uses Linux and OSGi 2.0 along
with Java J2ME. The MS 1000 is targeted to any broadband provider and
thus does not have a modem. When asked if this is a cable product Jed
stated that the product was designed to be broadband access neutral. In
fact, the first customer is not a cable company.
In response questions Jed stated that the STB market is cost driven. The
lowest cost, single function box, just the cable modem, is a hot seller
to the operators but the feature rich STB are not selling. Thus Jed sees
the high end STB like appliances, as going to retail, while direct
distribution will be the lowest cost entry STBs.
Jed was also asked about the status of middleware. It is too early to
forecast but OSGi is getting traction after being stalled for a number
of years.
Linux
The panel on Linux for CE was quite positive on the prospects. Of
course, it was made up of Linux supporters but some of the data they
presented was interesting. For example:
It is expected that Linux use will grow by 60% on a compound basis in
embedded applications from 2002 to 2006. The market share will be
approximately equally distributed between commercial and in house
developed embedded OS’s.
Japan is showing a strong migration to Linux. This is directly impacting
the use of IT Tron as the embedded OS of choice.
Sony and Panasonic joined together to work with Linux. This was
considered sufficiently successful that the CE Linux Forum was
established. There have been 7 working groups set up in the forum.
www.celinuxforum.org
OSGi
Strong statements were made about the potential role of OSGi:
OSGi is a network OS for the delivery of services.
Its key value is its ability to remotely and dynamically deploy
provision, maintain and manage applications and services.
OSGi was originally established to support the home. But the platform
has become valuable in many other applications. These include:
Enterprises;
Vehicles
Mobil handhelds and
Industrial environments
The objective of OSGi is to provide an open, common architecture for
service providers, software vendors, gateway operators and equipment
vendors to develop, deploy and manage services in a coordinated fashion.
Wave Comments
It is much too early to evaluate the value of mesh networking. Yet, over
and over the value of the mesh in terms of the user and ease of use
continues to be cited. Here is a technology which is quite sophisticated
and, if successful, that sophistication will get buried while at the
same time there is a positive consumer benefit.
Most surprising was the value of mesh for automobiles. If the promises
are realized this could be a massive public gain.
The requirements for software in home networking run deep. This
conference has certainly made this clear.
The fact that the PC will exist in the home is not the issue. The more
important topic is Will Windows or some variant have a strong role in CE
networks? An answer, based on just this conference, would be no.
Wave Issue 0352 02/27/04 Article 2-01