HGI’s initial role was to specify requirements and test plans for Home Gateways (HGs) that support Quality of Service and the rollout of triple-play, broadband services. That work established the key functional requirements needed to support managed services in the home, and it continues to provide an invaluable reference for the industry.
Our scope has now been expanded to cover the entire spectrum of requirements for devices and service support in the digital home. Our projects fall within two main themes - Connecting Homes and Enabling Services.
Connecting Homes covers the infrastructure requirements for delivering telecoms and internet services in the home. This work builds on the original HG ‘Residential Profile’ by defining extensions covering higher speeds and performance attributes, and updating the functionality to include such things as IPv6 support. HGI also publishes test plans for much of its defined functionality, and holds an annual Test Event where these tests can be independently carried out. Going beyond the Gateway itself, HGI now specifies requirements for home network ‘infrastructure devices’ (bridges, wireless Access Points etc.) and is also addressing real-world home network performance, end to end diagnostics, and energy efficiency.
Enabling Services has now moved beyond triple-play to encompass a delivery framework for Smart Home services. This architecture includes support for a standard, general purpose software execution environment in the HG (for third party applications), API definitions, device abstraction, and interfacing with Cloud based platforms. HGI’s published Use Cases for Home Energy Management are the first in a range of Smart Home services that the HGI architecture will support.
The published output of HGI includes functional requirements, test specifications, and white papers on the digital home infrastructure. They can be used by service providers in formal procurement activities, and by digital home equipment vendors to understand service providers’ needs so they can plan their roadmaps.