A newly emerging customer premises paradigm for delivery of network-based services

Abstract

Low-speed home networks in some form are used for lighting, appliance control and security systems in over 20% of U.S. households. The increasing penetration of personal computers (PCs) is leading to early deployment of twisted-pair Ethernet networks by information industry employees and early technology adopters. Digital video has matured to the point where the power of the MPEG compression algorithm is bearing fruit in new consumer electronics. The “jury is still out” on ultimate convergence of the entertainment center and the PC. However, it has definitely progressed with the advent of television Web appliances, and with the addition of video attributes being pulled down from Web sites and played on the PC. Rather than think of convergence in the context of a single-user device with full capability, increasing use of advanced digital networks in the home is the more likely evolution, with devices optimized for their particular task easily connecting to a whole-house network through attractive wall plates, by wireless, or through their commercial a.c. power cords. Several industries are formulating such concepts, examining advanced broadband digital networks with “plug-and-play” capabilities. For network service providers competing in an increasingly unregulated environment, success of service delivery will come to depend on a well-thought-out strategy for service termination. The old paradigm of “customer premises equipment” which was relatively well defined, specified and controlled by the network operator will give way to home networks which are extremely sophisticated in their own right. Service providers will be forced to think in terms of delivering services into this local environment, with an interface which is more driven by the customer's local deployment decisions, somewhat analogous to the business environment today in which carriers provide trunks and private lines to PBXs and gateways. This paper will examine the trends in home networking, and propose architectures which service providers can use to deliver services to, and across, home networks, to end-user devices. We will discuss recent industry activity focused on the concept of a residential gateway (RG), an electronic device which mediates between different service-provider access networks and different devices and networks within the home. We will discuss how the RG can facilitate intelligent testing capabilities to reduce maintenance costs, and intelligent provisioning which can support flexible service capabilities.