HomeRF Overview and Market Positioning
9 HomeRF Future
The HomeRF organisation is at an
advanced stage of discussion regarding the next SWAP specification. HomeRF
hope to take advantage of the FCC ruling, which allows increased
transmission speed capabilities of SWAP. It is anticipated that the data
rate will be increased to 10MBps in the 2.4GHz band. While the data rate
will increase significantly the HomeRF Working Group are striving to
retain backward compatibility with SWAP 1.0.
It is hoped that SWAP 2.0 plans for
a 10Mbps data rate, will mean only a minor cost difference compared to the
existing 1.6Mbps products. It is perceived that future generation SWAP
products will offer a 20Mbps data rate or more.
128-bit encryption is also expected
in the next generation of SWAP. (Note: 128-bit encryption was not found in
the original specification due to previous U.S government restrictions).
SWAP 2.0 prototypes should follow
soon after the SWAP 2.0 specification. It is envisaged that SWAP 2.0
compliant products will be launched in the second quarter of 2001. More
specifics about SWAP 2.0 will become apparent in the next few weeks as
HomeRF strive to complete the specification. However , the long-term
success of HomeRF is difficult to predict, Bluetooth
and other technologies like HiperLAN2, IEEE
802.11, while not directly competing in the same marketplace, will
cause some blowback. Regardless, the HomeRF Working Group will, continue
on its stated mission: to establish and deliver the mass
deployment of interoperable wireless network access devices for voice,
data and streaming media in consumer environments.
Introduction | Working
Group | Vision | Technical
Specification | Software Architecture |
Security | Implementations | Rival
Technologies | Future
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