The HomeGrid Forum today announced that the G.hn standard for next-generation wired home networks has been approved by the United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) during its Geneva meeting held this week.
All three components of the new standard — the Data Link Layer (G.9961), Physical Layer (G.9960) and coexistence protocol (G.9972) — are now complete.
This standard establishes a single networking standard for data and multimedia networking using coaxial cable, power lines and phone lines.
The announcement said "numerous manufacturers are expected to bring semiconductors for multimedia home networking to market later this year". HomeGrid Forum semiconductor manufacturers include DS2, Ikanos, Intel, Lantiq, Sigma Designs, and Texas Instruments.
Notably absent from the list is Atheros, which acquired HomePlug chipmaker Intellon last fall. A recent article said Atheros "does not have G.hn-based network chips on its product roadmap and is instead focused on products that are based on HomePlug AV and IEEE1901 standards". The reason cited is G.hn’s lack of backward-compatibility to the standards G.hn intends to replace: HomePlug, MoCA and HPNA.