Home frag-nets The old saying "the good thing about standards is there are so many of them" is coming true with a vengeance in the digital home. Both the G.hn and the HDMI folks announce advances today that highlight the fact this sector will continue to be fragmented for some time to come.	Rick Merritt Computing Editor
The G.hn standard aims to deliver a Gbit-class wired standard that runs over copper, coax and powerlines. The effort passed a milestone recently with ITU adoption of a base spec for its data link layer, building on a completed physical layer spec announced in December. In addition, the Home Grid Forum that promotes G.hn announced BT has joined its ranks. Carriers have been waiting for a solid wired standard before rolling out home networking systems and services in earnest. It looked like MoCA was going to be that standard as recently as CES, but now the broader G.hn umbrella looks like a strong bet. But the HomePlug powerline alliance may play the spoiler. It has been grousing that G.hn will not be compatible with its products. Just as G.hn steps forward, the HDMI LLC says its next-generation spec--version 1.4--includes support for Ethernet. Now the digital TV can be an Ethernet hub in the home linked to other devices via HDMI. That's an interesting new wrinkle for CE companies and carriers whose set tops all carry HDMI ports. The fact is after ten or twenty years of talking about home networks, new versions are still appearing every year. I suspect we may see a lot of creative implementations for G.hn and HDMI 1.4. And don't forget all the wireless contenders from the ubiquitous Wi-Fi to the emerging 60 GHz and ultrawideband options. Call the Geek Squad. It looks like we're headed for a polyglot home. Posted by Rick Merritt on May 27, 2009 02:07 AM in Computing

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