By Carol Ansley, ARRIS
Home users are becoming more and more dependent on their home IP networks to provide services and entertainment. As the industry moves toward a unified IP infrastructure for both HSD and video, the home network will be stressed by the increasing demands of video streaming to an ever-increasing universe of devices. The home network also already supports connections for computing devices such as PCs or laptops, and service devices such as scanners or printers. Increasingly the network also must support other devices such as tablets and smart phones in WiFi mode, with more devices showing up every week.
Security and Smart Grid usage monitoring and control are also likely to become more and more common, as well as other services that are still on the drawing board.
This paper discusses the variety of networking technologies used to support the current home network, and proposes strategies to improve the customer’s home networking experience with a three-pronged analysis.