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Spotlight

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Spotlight
February 2006 Vol.6 Issue 2
Page(s) 68-70 in print issue

Tomorrows Network
Examining Future Home-Networking Technologies
We keep hearing the same promises. Every electronics device we own will be able to
talk to one another, from our car stereo to our toaster. Well be able to stream highdefinition movies from a PC to our home theater system. Well be able to connect to our
home network from anywhere using portable devices.
These days are coming, and theyre closer than you
might think. Gigabit Ethernet for home networks is
gaining traction already, and wireless networking
companies are cranking out faster and faster products.
Over the next few years, the cutting edge will become
commonplace, and we want to make sure you dont miss
out on any of it.
This HDTV from Haier
receives digital video
signals from the
bundled media server
wirelessly using
UWB.

Hardwired

Now that GbE is the high-end standard for wired home

networks, you may have heard a lot of talk about its
successor, 10GbE, which businesses have used for
years. As the name implies, this newer standard is 10
times faster than GbEs theoretical maximum bandwidth of 1.25GBps, using copper or
fiber optic cables. Thats enough speed to transmit an entire DVD across your network in
a few seconds, but do you really need it?

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Lets pretend the stars align, and all of the broadcasters on earth suddenly decide to
offer all of their content as high-definition downloads. Because were already playing in
the realm of the impossible, lets say they decide to offer all of it in 1080p at 60fps, which
is the best HD standard were going to get for quite some time. A raw 1080p60 signal
needs 3Gbps of bandwidth, and GbE obviously wont stream that much data, so 10GbE
is the clear choice.

Pre-802.11n devices
such as Netgears
RangeMax 240
Wireless Router offer
bandwidth of up to
240Mbps now, but
thats just a fraction
of what the true
802.11n specification
handles.

Now lets return to Earth. Content in 1080p at 60fps just

isnt going to happen on a large scale right now. Thanks
to the magic of data compression, the high-definition
feeds you get from your cable company require only
19.3Mbps per channel, meaning you can stream multiple
channels of HD content via a 100Mbps Ethernet
connection. When prices finally reach levels desktop
users can afford and theres content out there that
actually requires that amount of bandwidth, 10GbE will
be nice, but dont expect that to happen for a few years:
Right now a single network interface card such as Intels
PRO/10GbE CX4 Server Adapter costs about $1,000.

Wireless Wars

The MIMO devices we discussed on page 55 are merely

heralds of whats to come in wireless networking. They
may have longer range and faster speeds than 802.11a,
802.11b, and 802.11g devices, but they all use proprietary technology. If you buy a
MIMO router from Linksys, it wont work with the Netgear MIMO NIC. Thats about to
change as new standards emerge, but the main problem lies in figuring out which
standard will prevail.
The warriors in this wireless cage match are 802.11n and UWB, each with different
capabilities, backers, and underlying technology. Both are still being hammered out, both
are racing to be first to market, and both are very interesting.
802.11n uses MIMO technology and is backward compatible with 802.11a, 802.11b, and
802.11g, but the initial specification supports a transmission rate as high as 600Mbps
and an actual data throughput rate of about 400Mbps. Thats several times faster than
current MIMO devices and will make it possible for you to stream multiple channels of
high-definition content to your home theater system without having to run cables into
your living room.

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Windows Vista
promises a slew of
enhanced networking
features, but it
remains to be seen
how many of these
will truly help end
users.

Dozens of companies back this technology, including

industry giants such as Cisco, D-Link, Linksys, Intel, and
Netgear. The problem is that manufacturers are divided
into two main groups. WWiSE (World-Wide Spectrum
Efficiency; www.wwise.org) has members such as HP,
Motorola, Nokia, and Texas Instruments, while TGn Sync
(www.tgnsync.org) has the likes of Cisco, Hitachi, Intel,
Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and
Toshiba on board. With the formation of the EWC
(Enhanced Wireless Consortium; www.enhancedwireless
consortium.org) in October 2005, 802.11n proponents
came one step closer to putting aside their differences
and drafting a true standard that will likely get 802.11n
products on the shelves by the end of this year, but there
are still no guarantees.

UWB is a completely different technology that isnt

backward compatible with 802.11a, 802.11b, or 802.11g
products. It requires very little power (as little as 750 milliwatts in its current form) and
has a short range compared to 802.11n. Although 802.11n products can send a usable
signal up to 200 meters, UWB is designed for distances of only a few dozen meters and
is usually positioned as a cable replacement for USB 2.0 and FireWire.
UWB supporters are split into two camps, so theres no telling when or if these groups
will agree on a unified standard. On one side is the UWB Forum (www.uwbforum.org),
with members including Belkin, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Samsung, and Sony,
among scores of others. On the other side is the WiMedia Alliance (www.wimedia.org),
whose promoters include such big names as HP, Intel, Microsoft, Philips, Samsung, and
Sony.
UWB chips are already available from companies such as Freescale, which offers an
XS110 chipset that operates at 110Mbps and an XS660 chipset that operates at up to
660Mbps. By the end of this year, Freescale plans to offer a chipset with 1.6Gbps of
bandwidth, which is enough to transmit an uncompressed 720p or 1080i high-definition
video signal. WiQuest is another major player in the UWB market and demonstrated a
UWB 1Gbps chipset last year.
These high speeds will let you do things such as
download high-resolution maps to a handheld device and
transmit them to your cars GPS or feed a high-definition
signal to a wall-mounted HDTV without using video
cables. In fact, Haier is putting a 37-inch LCD HDTV and

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Products such as
Linksys Wireless-G
Exterior Access
Point, which is
designed for outdoor
use, get their
electricity from PoE
technology, so
theyre easy to place
anywhere.

digital media server combo on the market later this year

that will incorporate UWB to let the server send video to
the display up to 20 meters away. (Pricing wasnt
announced at press time.)

New Vistas
When you're budgeting for new 10GbE and high-speed
wireless networking hardware, be sure to save some
cash for Windows Vista. It should be available later this
year, and the developers are promising a slew of
networking enhancements. Most of the changes benefit
software developers or IT managers, but there are some
that will appeal to us power users.

One highlight is the ability to divide network traffic among

multiple processors on the same machine, which Microsoft calls RSS (receive-side
scaling). This will be of great benefit to servers initially, but home users will enjoy the
benefits as they gain access to faster and faster broadband Internet speeds. Currently
Windows XP sends all network traffic to one CPU, regardless of whether you (or the
manufacturer) install multiple processors in the computer, and that causes glitches in
video and hiccups in applications when you stream large files to or from the computer.
With Windows Vista and multiple CPUs, these problems should go away, and its nice to
know that if broadband speeds ever rise to 1Gb or faster, all of that traffic wont
overwhelm your computer.
One of the first things we do after installing Windows is
tweak our network settings, so everything works as
smoothly as possible. Microsoft says Vista will handle
most of these optimizations by default. It also says that
Vista will respond more quickly when packets are lost
during a network transmission, letting your connection
sustain its maximum possible speed much better than is
the case with WinXP.
Freescales XS110
UWB chips require
little enough power
that theyre viable for
devices such as cell

Beyond Tomorrow
You can never have enough network bandwidth, and
optical networks that rely on fiber-optic cable have
incredible potential. In September 2005 Lucent

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Technologies and Bell Labs used an optical cable to

transmit Ethernet network data at 100Gbps. Thats a
phones, but they
huge increase over the 40Gbps bandwidth optical
provide more
SONET setups support but still represents only a tiny
wireless bandwidth
fraction of optical cables true power. Luxtera also
than a 100Mbps wired
reported last year that the same optical infrastructure
network.
10GbE currently uses could support data rates of 1Tbps
or even faster. Standard copper wiring is strained to the
limit at 10Gbps, and Luxtera says that even if manufacturers substitute different
materials, electrical interconnects will never reach 100Gbps. Optical cables could
eventually handle theoretical maximum data transfer rates of 10Tbps (or even faster
depending on how many different wavelengths of light the cables could eventually
transmit simultaneously) and wouldnt have the latency problems inherent to electrical
cables. It will be years before optical network prices fall to levels consumers can handle,
but well be waiting impatiently.
Dont expect wireless standards to change for quite some time. Security issues, massive
competition for market domination, and the need to make sure all of the equipment
works together means that 802.11n and UWB will be around for years. What you can
expect is that various manufacturers will come up with proprietary technology that
enhances the speed and range of 802.11n and UWB, but that only works with products
that come from that manufacturer. You will still be able to use products from different
companies if you stick to the basic 802.11n or UWB support, but if you feel the need for
speed, youll have to give all of your cash to one company. Manufacturers may work
together to create a standard but dont expect them to lie still and leave money on the
table once theyve made an agreement.
by Tracy Baker

Standards To Watch
802.11n and UWB might get most of the buzz these days, but be on the lookout
for other technologies that will change the way you use your network.
802.16e
WiMAX promises to bring high-speed wireless broadband Internet access to the
masses, and 802.16e promises to give you more than a 1Mbps connection from
your car or other moving vehicle.

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802.20
Much like 802.16e, 802.20 brings WiMAX to mobile users. The big difference?
Its designed to deliver a connection even if youre moving as fast as 155mph, so
now youll be able to shop online from your private helicopter.
BPL (Broadband over Power Line)
High-speed Internet access from any socket in the house? Where do we sign up?
HomePlug AV
More love for the power outlets: Network at up to 200Mbps using your existing
wiring.
ZigBee
Cheap, low-powered radios may let your electronics equipment network with one
another, from the fridge to the TV.

Data By The Busload

As network speeds continue to ramp up, the system bus is quickly becoming the
main networking bottleneck. Run a Gigabit Ethernet card at full throttle, and
youre using about 95% of the available bandwidth on a first-generation PCI
motherboard. There are newer-generation PCI motherboards that support
2.112Gbps or even 4.224Gbps, but truly taking advantage of Gigabit Ethernet
and future technologies requires upgrading to technologies such as PCI Express.
PCI-E has been around for a while and was designed specifically to handle the
kinds of high-speed data transfers that PCI chokes on. It eschews PCIs single
parallel data bus in favor of multiple serial data paths dedicated to each device,
with the obvious benefit that devices dont have to trip over one another when
sending data to other parts of the computer.
In PCI-Es initial form, each data path could handle a maximum bandwidth of
2.5Gbps, which is more than enough for Gigabit Ethernet. The fastest PCI-E x16
models handle 80Gbps, providing plenty of overhead for 10GbE cards and

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beyondfar beyond.

More Power
Networking devices that get their electricity from the Ethernet cable using 802.3af
PoE (Power over Ethernet) technology should expand dramatically in the future
and make it much easier to place networking devices throughout your house, or
even outside it.
The main problem with PoE right now is that it only supplies a theoretical
maximum of 15.4 watts of power, but that will all change with PoE Plus
technology. The newer standard should deliver at least 30W, and probably more,
which is enough to run some notebook computers. Products using PoE Plus may
not appear until 2007 or later, but in the meantime companies such as
PowerDsine offer devices right now that deliver more power than PoE. The
companys 8012 High Power Midspan, for example, delivers up to 39W of power
to each attached device. Its as easy as running cables from your existing router
or hub to the midspan and then running them from the midspan out to your PoE
devices.

Copyright 2006 Sandhills Publishing Company U.S.A. All rights reserved.

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