HomePNA technology

The explosion of the Internet and the emergence of broadband access technologies enabling the integration of voice, data and video have brought the home network back into the spotlight, providing it with the panoply of applications it had sorely lacked until now.

The concept of the home network is not new, and has its origins in the interest of interconnecting computers and electronic devices within the home to facilitate communication and resource sharing. In the early days, home networking attracted little attention from users, mainly because of the complexity of the solutions proposed, their price, the lack of standardization and, above all, the lack of applications. This technology was often perceived as being reserved for "technophiles" with the knowledge needed to deploy and operate these networks, and the desire to invest in these expensive projects. Since then, however, technological advances have continued to change our lifestyles, our needs and our conception of the information society. The most important factor in promoting home networking has been the proliferation of computers and electronic devices in the home. In the past, households owned just one computer, but today they are often equipped with several, as well as other electronic devices (digital televisions, DVD players, Hi-Fi systems, VCRs, digital cameras, games consoles, PDAs, etc.). By 2002, the penetration rate of the second computer is expected to exceed that of the single computer. These trends are mainly due to falling prices for electronic components.

For a long time, the concept of the home network was halfway between reality and science fiction, offering users low value-added applications (remote control of the microwave oven, intelligent washing machines and refrigerators, etc.). The advent of broadband Internet has opened up the home to major telecommunications networks (ADSL, cable networks, satellite networks and soon the third-generation UMTS mobile telephone network) for exchanging information, downloading music files and videos or listening to the radio. The applications of home networks are many and varied (sharing Internet access, the possibility of having several virtual telephone lines on the same physical medium, viewing audiovisual data independently of where the data is stored) and can be classified into four main areas: resource sharing, communication, entertainment and home control. Resource sharing includes the sharing of peripherals such as printers and scanners, as well as Internet connections, applications and data. Communication includes applications such as telephony, fax and e-mail. Interconnection enables intelligent routing between these different applications and communication devices. Entertainment applications occupy a growing place in the Internet world,...