Planning for the ever increasing demands placed on the home network

Transcription

1 Planning for the ever increasing demands placed on the home network Nick Farrow Future Consumer Applications & Services, Research and Innovation, BT Technology, Service & Operations

2 Home network - The challenge Performance should at least match that of the access network Ideally it should have sufficient capacity to meet current and future requirements. Currently driven by IPTV demands, rapidly converging on HD and looking to 4k TV (~35 Mbps with advanced codecs) Will need to have sufficient bandwidth for simultaneous multiple IPTV streams, web browsing sessions, etc. It is estimated that there will be an average of 100 Mbps required around the home by 2015 (McKinsey & Company May 2012) It needs to be robust and not affect the services operating over it Ideally generate minimal pollution e.g. interference with neighbouring networks Invisible? Support mobile CPE

3 Home network The old guard Wired A range of different cable standards available Cat5e/Cat 6 giving up to 10 Gbps Installation can be time consuming But good performance and robustness Also rans? Plastic Optical Fibre HomePNA MoCA (not big in the UK) Firecomms MCE300T Media Converter Is the aesthetic impact unacceptable?

4 Home network The new kids on the block Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz, is essential for portable CPE 5 GHz» Poor spectrum management and susceptible to interference» Not suitable for the delivery of premium content» Up to 23 non-overlapping channels. Range generally less than 2.4 GHz, but higher performance from dedicated IPTV bridges Power-line Sends data over the in home electrical wiring Market dominated by HomePlug AV Conflicting/competing standards Second generation nearly on the high street Can these meet the challenge?

5 The new kids are growing up fast, what are the claims? Power-line: 1st generation: HomePlugAV PHY rate of 200 Mbps Emerging generation: G.hn PHY rate 1 Gbit/s Wi-Fi n 4x4 600 Mbps ac 433Mbit/s 6.77 Gbit/s Would you roll out a premium service based on these figures?

6 Is your home safe for a premium service? Attenuation Interference Connectivity Power line Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi 5 GHz

7 In some homes. 5 GHz performance over 24 hours 5 GHz Wi-Fi Mbps Next Gen P line Mbps

8 What have BT s previous trials shown? 72 homes, 24 hrs per technology per home, 432 room paths analysed, 1420 test hours Wi-Fi higher initial non connectivity (~7%) but able to carry higher rates n 5 GHz 1 st gen power-line 1.5 gen power-line n 5Ghz 1xSD Film 1xHD Film 3xSD Film 1xHD Live 3xHD Film 3xHD Live Power-line marginal non connectivity but unable to carry higher rates

9 How do you know if your services will run over variable conditions? Our assessment framework look for everything everywhere! Service specific HD Film Hub TV HD Live (Multicast) Headroom (over and above fixed) STB2 STB3 Full home survey Single streams across all room paths Hub 1 TV TCP maximum rate STB2 6 STB3

10 Home Gateway Initiative ( A valuable forum that brings together customers and vendors of Digital Home technology Publishes requirements for digital home software and hardware building blocks Home gateways Home network devices BT is leading the way in producing a set of home network Key Performance Indicators. These a specify a set of tests and analysis, giving an indication of home connectivity for a range of traffic types. The KPI s are test harness agnostic and aim to give an alternative view to the theoretical maximums. The KPI s will be made available to the industry by the HGI when completed, within the next quarter.

11 And just over the horizon.. A new generation of devices, combining Wi-Fi and power-line The hybrid devices unify the link management through the IEEE P initiative Great advantages of one touch setup/security and configuration sharing However, substantial dynamic link management using proprietary algorithms Potentially a nightmare for telcos, delivering premium services over a home network that it can barely detect does not control. Will P1905 be The solution, or another false dawn?

12 Thank you for your attention