Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
seded by HomePNA 2.0 in late 1999. HomePNA 2.0 supported up to 32Mbps, although
most products ran at 10Mbps, bringing it to parity with 10BASE-T Ethernet. Although
some vendors produced HomePNA 1.0 and 2.0 products, these versions of HomePNA
never became popular. Both of these products use a bus topology that runs over existing
telephone wiring and are designed for PC networking only.
With the development of HomePNA 3.1 in 2007, the emphasis of HomePNA has shifted
from strictly PC networking to a true “digital home” solution that incorporates PCs, set-
top boxes, TVs, and other multimedia hardware on a single network.
HomePNA 3.1 is the latest version of the HomePNA standard. In addition to telephone
wiring, HomePNA 3.1 supports coaxial cable used for services such as TV, set-top boxes,
and IP phones. As shown in
Figure 17.21
,
HomePNA 3.1 incorporates both types of wir-
ingintoasingle networkthat runsatspeedsupto320Mbps,carries voice, data, andIPTV
service, and provides guaranteed quality of service (QoS) to avoid data collisions and
avoid disruptions to VoIP and streaming media.
HomePNA
refers to the ability to carry
VoIP, IPTV, and data as a “triple-play.” HomePNA 3.1 also supports remote management
of the network by the service provider.
Figure 17.21
A typical HomePNA 3.1 network interconnecting PC, telephone, and TV service via tele-
phone and coaxial cables.
