Thanks for reading my first blog post. In this edition, I look at home networking. It's an area that I have had my eye on for the past decade, when the advent of broadband access made Internet-sharing a killer app. Defining "home networking" broadly, Ethernet and Wi-Fi are the most popular technologies and what I use in my own home network. Usually when I discuss "home networking technologies" I refer to those that convey data using existing wiring, such as coaxial (cable-TV) cable, phone lines, or power lines. I've tried power-line technology in the past. It was easy to use because nothing had to be configured. The pair of power-line wall-warts transparently bridged my wired Ethernet connection. I ended up giving the setup to a friend who had interference problems with his Wi-Fi gear in his apartment.

Despite the advantage of requiring no new wires, coax, phone-line, and power-line home-networking products have not sold well through the retail channel. There are several reasons for this, and I believe a lack of standardization is foremost among them. Standardization, however, is less important for an operator seeking to deploy multiple types of content, such as data, TV, radio or voice services to multiple devices in the home. The operator supplies the gateway, set-top box, telephone adapter, etc., and thus can use whatever technology it finds to be best. The gateway typically also supports Wi-Fi or Ethernet to enable the consumer to add devices, such as computers, to the network.

Operators, therefore, have driven sales of home-networking technologies. Two suppliers have grown their revenue to rank in our list of the top-25 suppliers of wired-comm chips: Entropic and Intellon. We rank Entropic 18th.
The company in 2008 was the lone supplier of chips implementing the Moca standard, which uses coax. This standard is used in the U.S. by Verizon in its Fios FTTH deployment. Intellon has supplied power-line networking chips for 20 years. The company made significant revenue gains in 2008 owing to a few service providers choosing its technology. These gains enabled Intellon to place 21st in our ranking and to rate as the fastest growing company among the top 25. Other companies to watch in this space include CopperGate, DS2, Broadcom, Gigle, Panasonic, and Spidcom.

Home-networking suppliers are in a tough spot. If service providers drive sales, it enables too many suppliers and technological variants to be marginally successful. Several suppliers will have design wins supporting the multitude of operators worldwide, but no single supplier will emerge as the obvious winner. This could lead to a ruinous pricing regime, hurting all suppliers. On the other hand, if a single technology emerges as the victor, it will be integrated into the gateway, set-top box, etc. chip, destroying the market for single-function home-networking chips.