Home Phoneline Networking Alliance
Home Phoneline Networking Alliance
(communications, networking, protocol, standard)The Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HomePNA) was foundedin June 1998 by 3Com, AMD, AT&T Wireless Services,Compaq, Conexant, Epigram, Hewlett-Packard, IBM,Intel, Lucent Technologies, Rockwell SemiconductorSystems, and Tut Systems. The membership now spans thenetworking, telecommunications, hardware, software, andconsumer electronics industries.
The alliance was originally formed because of the increasingdemand for home networking caused by the growing number ofhomes with multiple PCs (and other devices) to connecttogether to provide facilities such as shared Internetaccess, networked gaming, and sharing of peripherals,files and applications.
The member companies aimed to develop open standards toensure compatibility between different manufacturers'products. They also decided that this should be done usingthe phone wiring that already existed in people's homes. Theconcept of "no new wires" networking meant installation wassimpler.
HomePNA's original specifications could be used to create a 1Mbps (megabits per second) Ethernet-compatible LAN withno hubs, routers, splitters or terminations. Adapterswould allow any computer (or other device) with an Ethernetport to be linked to the home network. Up to 25 PCs,peripherals and network devices can be connected to such anetwork.
On 1999-12-01, the HomePNA announced a new release of itsnetworking technology specification, called Home PNA 2.0.Like the first specification, it uses existing phone lines,but it can operate at speeds up to 10 Mbps. The new versionis backwardly compatible with the original 1 Mbps HomePNAtechnology, and is designed to provide faster networkssuitable for future voice, video and data applications.
HomePNA.org. HomePNA.Com.