Operators Embrace Next Generation Home-Networking Devices to Provide Robust Whole-Home Wi-Fi

Taiwanese service provider Chunghwa Telecom announced in January that it will use G.hn adapters from Comtrend to enhance users’ at-home connectivity options through Multimedia over Coax (MoCA) and powerline connectivity. Chunghwa Telecom provides FTTx broadband service to more than 4 million homes in Taiwan. The launch of G.hn adapters is one of Chunghwa Telecom’s strategies to assure its FTTx broadband subscribers receive gigabit service throughout their homes, reducing Wi-Fi network problems in broadband homes and associated technical assistance costs. Wi-Fi sees its own advancements as time progresses, but these alternative options widen the footprint for better connectivity across variables in environment, equipment, and use cases.

The number of home networks is accelerating globally, driven by the expansion of broadband networks. According to ABI Research’s latest market data, the worldwide number of home networks will reach 840 million in 2019 and is expected to surpass 1 billion in 2023. Since broadband penetration has reached over 90% in regions such as North America and Western Europe, emerging markets are expected to mainly contribute the growth of home networks in the forecast period.

A residential gateway or a modem connected to a wireless router is typically used in today’s broadband homes. While Wi-Fi is the most commonly used home network, wired networking based on Powerline and MoCA are other common technologies. MoCA is mainly used in North America, where most of the residential homes already have coaxial wiring installed. Powerline networking is common in other regions where coaxial wires are not easily available. Wi-Fi home networking device adoption rates will certainly continue to grow thanks to the technology’s ubiquity and ease of use; however, wired networking will still play an important role to support reliable high-performance residential broadband networks and so technology that can enhance that role will prove vital for a number of markets.

Home broadband devices supporting 802.11 ac and 802.11 ax Wi-Fi standards enable high capacity in home connectivity. Service providers have also introduced devices such as Wi-Fi mesh systems to achieve whole home Wi-Fi coverage. Such systems usually support self-installation and diagnosis, helping service providers save time and cost for technical assistance. Despite the improvement in Wi-Fi features, leveraging wired connections may be required to improve in-home user experience across the board. Wi-Fi signals can be weakened by brick or concrete walls, which can degrade connectivity, while using wired connectivity as a backbone for a home Wi-Fi network can significantly improve performance.

Especially when using bandwidth intensive applications as video streaming or gaming, wired connectivity can provide higher speed and lower latency compared to solely using Wi-Fi. Devolo Magic 2 WiFi, launched in late 2018, is one example of a home networking system that leverages Wi-Fi and wireline to provide the best in-home Wi-Fi experience. The system offers Wi-Fi mesh networking with adapters transferring data over powerline in the home network. Such solutions can benefit both users and service providers with optimized home networks. Service providers can also take advantage of wired networking devices supporting MoCA 2.5 or G.hn standards, which can support gigabit speed to fill out a connectivity implementation. Chunghwa Telecom recognized the requirement of residential broadband users and quickly responded with the launch of G.hn adapters.

Broadband operators try to continuously improve their quality of service with network infrastructure upgrades as they expand their coverage. As the broadband market gets saturated, especially in mature markets, the ability to provide excellent user experience becomes crucial to be successful in an increasingly competitive ecosystem. 5G networks are on the horizon, and can enable operators to offer home broadband service through a Fixed Wireless Access cellular network deployment. Providing satisfying user experience is even more important for maintaining customer base. The increase of live and on-demand video streaming, increasing availability of 4K content, and the likelihood of 8K video in the future is expected to drive continual demand for reliable, high efficiency home networks. In addition, augmented reality and virtual reality applications are paving their respective ways to consumer use cases, which will further drive the requirement of high capacity, low latency home networks. Devices supporting high capacity, self-installation, and diagnosis services are also beneficial for service providers, reducing OpEx for technical assistance. Wi-Fi will remain a preferred home network for consumers for wireless feature. However, high capacity wired networking devices still be important for using latency sensitive, high bandwidth applications creating opportunity for broadband device in wired networking segment. With many factors at play, service providers need to anticipate the next generation of home network devices and partner with device vendors to stay ahead of the curve and offer competitive service early, rather than being reactionary.