Major tech companies are expected to announced tomorrow that they have created a “HomeGrid Forum” in order to advance the cause of broadband networking over wiring in the home, VentureBeat has learned.
Members of the group include Infineon Technologies, Intel, Panasonic, Texas Instruments, Aware (DSL chip maker), Gigle (a home-networking chip maker), Pulse~Link (a home-networking chip maker) and DS2, a powerline networking start-up in Spain.
The forum’s goal is to promote a next-generation standard for transporting data over home wiring in response to a growing need in homes to move high-definition video from one place to another. The forum will to a companion to the ITU-T G.hn group which includes computer makers, consumer electronics firms, service providers and networking companies.
The wires include coaxial cable, power lines and phone lines. With the forum, equipment makers will be able to eventually create equipment that can transfer data over any of those lines. Currently, the manufacturers have to make separate gear to work over each kind of line. That complicates the task of networking in the home and makes it more expensive to network digital media in the home. The group will promote a worldwide standard and launch a certification program.
The standard group will have a preliminary specification in 2008 and a final draft by September, 2009. The group’s goal will be to reduce the cost of sharing digital video, music, and other content over existing home wires. Any networking device should be able to plug into the wires and start working.
The group says it will not compete with other home networking alliances and it will try to ensure backward compatibility with a variety of devices already in the market.
[photo: flickr/kk+]
