HomeRF Networking Standard Gains Momentum

Supporters of the HomeRF standard for wireless home networks have reason to celebrate this week: At the Internet World trade show in Los Angeles, two companies announced the first HomeRF-based products to hit the market.

Not bad for a standard some analysts dismissed as an also-ran to the faster 802.11B wireless standard--even before HomeRF products hit store shelves.

On Tuesday, Cayman Systems announced an Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line gateway called the 3220HW that will ship in 30 days. On Wednesday, Intel announced two HomeRF-based products that will join its AnyPoint home network line in about a month.

The Cayman product offers users the ability to share a broadband connection via a HomeRF network, says Richard Korzeniewski, vice president of business development.

The product also includes a four-port Ethernet hub, built-in firewall security, plug-and-play installation, and Web-based manageability. Cayman sells the product for $998, but most service providers such as cable companies will offer it for less to users who sign up for service, he says.

The new Intel HomeRF-based products include an internal PC Card model for mobile PCs and a Universal Serial Bus model for both desktop and notebook computers. The company says the PC Card model will have a suggested price of $129, the USB model a suggested price of $119. Users connect their PCs via a peer-to-peer network.

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A handful of vendors, including Apple and Dell, already offer wireless home networking kits based on the 802.11B standard. While early 802.11B products appear slightly more expensive, critics of HomeRF question why anyone would choose its slower 1.6-megabit-per-second transfer rate over 802.11B's speedy 11-mbps rate.

Ben Manny, chair of the HomeRF Working Group, a vendor consortium, says the 1.6-mbps transfer rate is more than enough for most home broadband users. Plus, HomeRF has built-in technology that will let service providers offer high-quality voice functions via broadband in the near future. The 802.11B standard--which was initially geared for wireless networking in the office--currently can't provide the same voice features, he says.

It's that voice capability that convinced Cayman to add HomeRF to its gateway product. "Built-in voice has huge appeal to service providers," Korzeniewski says.