Intel IP Home Networking Plan Gaining Consensus

Many seem to agree on the ports’ utility, executives said. But details must be worked out on how set tops will send video and data to DVRs, PCs and other devices, they said. And the 1394 Trade Association, representing makers of ports now required by the FCC for all HD boxes, said those connectors are better for sending jitter-free high-bandwidth HD video.

Last week, NCTA endorsed Intel’s request that the FCC kill a requirement that all HD boxes have interfaces meeting the IEEE 1394 standard and instead require RJ45 IP jacks. Verizon made a similar filing July 31, and a Cox spokesman said it supports use of Ethernet connections rather than 1394 jacks. “There’s not a great deal of disagreement, it seems, in principle,” said Brian Markwalter, CEA vice president of technology and standards. “It’s playing out very clearly in the filings… I think we could very easily get agreement on the addition of an Ethernet port.” But details must be hashed out, a task CEA is leaving to members, he said. “It’s very practical for Intel to put a proposal on the table. Whether it will meet everybody’s needs, we'll see.”

“There’s a building consensus around the Ethernet connector,” said Jeffrey Lawrence, Intel digital home and content-policy director. As a sign of support for IP connections, he cited his talks with CE companies, which are starting to focus on how set-tops can communicate with other home-networked devices. “The devil is still in the details, but it is the details [being discussed], so I'm optimistic,” he added. “It would be great to see everybody using the same kind of system to move content around in their home networks on various devices.”

Intel still hopes to draw up an IP plan that enjoys wide support and to give it to the FCC by Sept. 30 so the agency can set an Ethernet connection mandate, Lawrence said. He’s encouraged by support for Intel’s proposal expressed in July by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, he said. The commission, which issued a rulemaking notice in 2007, has held off issuing rules for interactive pay-TV devices. “This is a great opportunity for the chairman to lead,” said Lawrence, calling it a “complicated sort of regulatory environment.”

The FCC thinks IP technology could boost competition in the market for pay-TV, “desperately needed” after cable rates about doubled in the past 10 years, said the commission spokesman. “IP video could provide an alternative to the cable ‘pipe,'” he said. “Requiring cable operators to provide an IP interface on set-top boxes would facilitate the delivery of IP video.”

Verizon uses IP ports to support home networking, such as DVRs sending video to set-tops on sets without recorders, said David Young, vice president of federal regulatory. It also uses the ports to send video-on-demand programs, interactive program guide data and widgets to pay-TV subscribers, he said. “The potential there is virtually unlimited,” Young added. “Anything you could do with a computer, you could imagine doing with a set-top box on a TV.” Verizon would save money if it didn’t have to use HD boxes sporting little-used 1394 jacks, he said.

Cox’s 1394 connections “are seldom used,” said a spokesman for the cable operator, a party to talks with Intel. Time Warner Cable also has said its 1394 ports see scant use. In a Wednesday letter to the FCC, NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow said 1394 outputs are “largely unused today and imposes substantial costs that are borne by cable customers.” If Intel’s proposal wins “wide” support from DTV makers, the FCC should consider replacing the 1394 rule with an Ethernet connection requirement, he wrote. An NCTA spokeswoman declined to comment, as did a Charter spokeswoman. A Comcast official didn’t respond to a message.

All AT&T set-top boxes have Ethernet connections, which could be used for “core video programming,” said a spokesman for that carrier. The connections “could be used as part of a home network based solution” over the “longer term,” he said. The telco doesn’t use 1394 ports, instead running Motorola IPTV boxes with Ethernet connections, he said.

1394 jacks now see little use for interactivity, a pattern that will change as more people buy HD sets because broadcasters are going all-digital, said Executive Director James Snider of the 1394 Trade Association. “It’s more of an early adopter-type market so far,” said Snider, whose members include LSI, Oxford Semiconductor and Texas Instruments. All 1394 ports work with IP, as they have for years, and need only software in set-tops to allow the devices to use that technology, said Snider. 1394 ports are better suited than Ethernet connections to handle HD video, which runs at 40 Mbps, he added. “The video arrives on time and doesn’t pause… How many times have you watched a video off the Internet and had it go through without pausing?”