CAZITech
®
CONSULTING
Market Segments
www.cazitech.com
CAZITech
®
Broadband
The term “broadband” implies “fast,” or at
least faster than dial-up, but what does it
really mean?
Broadband lets you do more of the fun stuff,
and it's more than just speed.
Providers are starting to converge data,
entertainment and voice content with services
that drive more subscriptions and generate
more revenues.
As people adopt broadband, they'll next want
to share the high-speed connection among
other PCs. In other words, where broadband
goes, home networks follow.
CAZITech
®
Data Networks
The home networking market is driven
mostly by data networks that let several PCs
share broadband connections, Internet
access, printers, files, and other resources.
Most of these networks are based on some
form or Ethernet, either over Cat.5 cabling,
existing phone lines (HomePNA), power
lines (HomePlug), or radio signals (Wi-Fi).
But because these data networks generally
lack quality of service (QoS) guarantees,
they have problems supporting telephony
apps with strict latency requirements, or
entertainment apps with time dependencies.
Voice Networks
There's no world standard for cordless phones,
so the recent demise of the HomeRF Working
Group is disappointing.
HomeRF had many technical advantages over
Wi-Fi, especially for voice and entertainment
apps. It also fit into a vision of next generation
phone systems, with the potential of becoming
the global cordless phone standard.
But HomeRF never got enough market traction
to succeed due to the overwhelming success of
Wi-Fi, even though Wi-Fi still can't do what
HomeRF could.
CAZITech
®
Entertainment Networks
As entertainment goes digital, it brings up new issues,
including
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Digital Rights Management vs. Fair Use
Consumers and Artists vs. Record Label,
Set-top Boxes vs. PC Media Servers
Broadcast vs. Video-on-Demand
Terrestrial Broadcast vs. Cable & Satellite
Fee-based vs. Advertising business model
Convergence with voice and data
According to Allied Business Intelligence,
33.4M STBs were sold in 2002, with nearly
10% having DVR functions. By 2008, they
predict that 72.5M STBs will ship, and
about 68% will have DVR capabilities.
CAZITech
®
Control Networks
Home automation networks control lighting,
appliances, and temperature, with the
objective of improving comfort, convenience,
and safety, and also lowering utility costs.
Industry standards like X-10 make it easy for
do-it-yourselfers to install simple control
networks. The components they need are
available at specialized retailers, online
outlets, and even mass market stores like
Home Depot. Also, several consumer
publications have appeared in the last few
years to help the consumer.
CAZITech
®
Security Networks
Whether using wiring or wireless, a security
network connects sensors and actuators to a
control unit, and possibly from there to a remote
monitoring service.
Inexpensive CCD and CMOS cameras make
surveillance a practical extensions of this
network, and the leading security systems can
now tie into control and voice networks and
even support remote access to these systems.
While a wired system is generally cheaper,
faster, more reliable, and more secure than
wireless networks, but wiring may not be an
option. So, wireless lets consumers retrofit
existing homes.
CAZITech
®
Home Wiring
Some 42% of new homes already have
Structured Wiring, which includes CAT-5e
cabling for phones & Ethernet, RG-6 cabling for
TV, and a wiring distribution hub.
It's not clear, however, that this advanced wiring
will outlast a 30-year mortgage, given the pace
of technology innovation. This fact, and the
large number of older homes, suggests that
there will always be a large retrofit market.
Wireless (and other no-new-wires) technologies
can complement structured wiring.
CAZITech
®
Wireless
As devices get smaller, run on battery power,
and move about, wireless networks let them
stay connected. But it’s not easy to choose
between different standards that include 3G,
802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g, Bluetooth, Ultrawideband and ZigBee.
New multimode, multi-band chip technologies
allow new products to sense and adapt to
different cellular and wireless LAN networks.
>50% of consumers prefer wireless home
networks, and residential markets are driving
sales of Wi-Fi networks, gaining 55% of the
total WLAN market in 2002.
CAZITech
®
Fiber Optics
As fiber cabling extends closer to homes, the
legacy copper and coax cabling gets shorter
and therefore faster. While we encourage
deployment of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), it’s
hard to imagine applications that need that
much bandwidth.
CAT-5e phone wiring already supports up to
1Gbps, and in a few years, wireless, power line,
and phone line networks will reach 100Mbps –
enough for future apps that need that speed.
So, to prepare for the unimaginable, we simply
recommend installing empty conduit between
floors in homes, so it’s easier to run whatever
new wires are needed later.
CAZITech
®
Residential Gateways
The RG is viewed as a “Holy Grail” for
connecting broadband networks to home
networks and for delivering a rich mix of
services. But because market analysts can't
agree on what this device is and what
services it enables, their RG market forecasts
vary from $3 Billion to $7 Billion in 2007.
The original vision of a multi-service gateway
that tied in different service providers has
been slow to market, due more to political
and logistical reasons than technical ones.
Instead, companies have introduced other
gateway form factors, including standalone
service gateways, TV set-top gateways, and
PC gateway software.