G.Hn Hits Major Milesone Towards Completion

BEAVERTON, OR, May 27 (MARKET WIRE) --
HomeGrid Forum, a global, non-profit trade group promoting the United
Nations' ITU-T G.hn standardization efforts for next-generation wired
home networking, has announced that the ITU-T has achieved yet another
milestone in the progress of G.hn -- the unified standard that supports
home networking over multiple wires (power lines, phone lines, and
coaxial cables).

This month, the ITU-T progressed the new draft for G.hn and adopted as
"Baseline Text" significant portions of the Data Link Layer (DLL). Having
the key elements of the DLL as Baseline Text also means that the G.hn
group is on track to meet its goal of achieving Consent for the complete
G.hn standard during 2009. Stable Baseline Text for the DLL -- coupled
with the December 2008 Consented Network Architecture and Physical Layer
for G.hn -- further enables silicon vendors to progress their product
development. To date, three silicon vendors and one silicon intellectual
property vendor have announced their intention to develop products for
the new G.hn standard.

Key elements of the G.hn DLL that reached Baseline Text within the
ITU-T
are:

-- A Time-Division Multiple Access (TDMA) Media Access Control (MAC), which
provides guaranteed bandwidth and low latency for applications that have
strict Quality of Service (QoS) requirements, such as IPTV. G.hn's MAC also
includes support for multiple priority levels, to ensure that an
application, such as peer-to-peer file transfers, do not impact the
performance of higher-priority applications like IPTV, VoIP, or online
gaming.

-- A Logical Link Control (LLC) sub-layer that ensures delivery of data over
home electrical wiring. G.hn's LLC employs an advanced selective ARQ
(Automatic Retransmission Request) protocol that automatically re-transmits
data affected by noise and provides error-free end-to-end Ethernet services
to any G.hn device on the network connected to power lines, phone lines, or
coaxial cables.

-- A procedure for efficient aggregation of multiple Ethernet messages over
a single MAC Protocol Data Unit (MPDU). This significantly increases
network throughput to support applications such as High-Definition IPTV
that have large bandwidth requirements. G.hn specifies line data rates up
to 1 Gbit/s, significantly higher than current generation wired networking
technologies.

-- State-of-the-art security based on AES (Advanced Encryption Standard -
FIPS-PUB-197) and CCM (Cipher Block Chaining Message Authentication Code -
NIST-SP-900-38C).

The functional areas of the DLL that are now adopted as Baseline Text
ensure that G.hn can support applications with strict QoS requirements
(such as high-definition video), and that G.hn can be used in products for
the service provider, consumer electronics, and PC markets.

"The United Nations' ITU-T continues to make rapid progress towards a
single unified standard for delivering multimedia content around the
home," said Matthew Theall, president of the HomeGrid Forum.
"Additionally, this next-generation standard has been actively driven by
some of the world's leading service providers, consumer electronics
manufacturers and PC companies."

HomeGrid Forum is actively promoting and developing compliance and
interoperability test programs for the G.hn standard. These programs will
simplify the development, purchase, installation, and use of HomeGrid
Forum-Certified products through the entire ecosystem of silicon
providers, services providers, consumer electronics companies, personal
computer companies, and retailers. The group continues to seek new
members that can help drive the success of G.hn.

About HomeGrid Forum

HomeGrid Forum is a global, non-profit trade group promoting the
International Telecommunication Union's G.hn standardization efforts for
next-generation home networking. HomeGrid Forum promotes adoption of G.hn
through technical and marketing efforts, addresses certification and
interoperability of G.hn-compliant products, and cooperates with
complementary industry alliances. For more information about Homegrid
Forum or the G.hn standard, please visit www.homegridforum.org.

CONTACT:
Layla McHale
McHale Communications for HomeGrid Forum
Email Contact
(408) 981-6394

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