What is homeRF ?

[Anas]

hie,

In the networking world, what do you mean by a term called "homeRF" ? Well, from the name, it is pretty understood that it's something to do with the networking functioning within home, but what exactly does it mean ? Can anybody provide some details or information regarding this ?

thank you ......

[Milton.J]

"HomeRF" was a wireless networking specification for home devices to be connected to each other.

It was developed in 1998 by the HomeRF Working Group, a consortium of mobile wireless companies that included Siemens, Motorola, Philips and more than 100 other companies. The group was disbanded in January 2003 after Wi-Fi 802.11b networks became accessible to home users and Microsoft began including support for Bluetooth, a standard the HomeRF competed with, in its Windows operating systems. As a result HomeRF has fallen into obsolescence. The archive of the HomeRF Working Group is maintained by Palo Wireless.

HomeRF used frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) in the 2.4 GHz frequency band and could achieve a maximum of 10 Mbit/s throughput; its nodes can travel within a 50 meter range of an access point while remaining connected to the personal area network (PAN).

HomeRF allowed both traditional telephone signals and data signals to be exchanged over the same wireless network. Therefore, in HomeRF, cordless telephones and laptops, for example, could share the same bandwidth in the same home or office.

Available HomeRF LANs supported 1.6 Mbit/s, relatively slow compared to second generation 802.11 LANs which support 11 Mbit/s. 802.11n standard will reach 100 Mbit/s at least.

Currently, there are several standards and working groups focused on wireless networking technology in radio frequency (RF). Standards include popular IEEE 802.11, 802.16, and Bluetooth.

[Spyrus]

The main objective of HomeRF Working Group is - to enable the existence of a broad range of interoperable consumer devices, by establishing an open industry specification for unlicensed RF digital communications for PCs and consumer devices anywhere, in and around the home.

[Snake08]

HomeRF (means Home Radio Frequency) - is a home networking standard developed by Proxim Inc. that combines the 802.11b and Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication (DECT) portable phone standards into a single system.

HomeRF uses a frequency-hopping technique to deliver speeds of up to 1.6 Mbps over distances of up to 150 ft - too short a range for most business applications, but suitable for the home market that it was specifically developed for.

HomeRF is one of two standards currently vying for the wireless home network market share. The other main contender, Wi-Fi uses a direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) transmission method to deliver speeds of up to 11 Mbps. HomeRF is said to have better mechanisms in place to deal with interference (from microwave ovens, for example) and to handle voice, video, and audio data better than Wi-Fi. Nevertheless, Wi-Fi is significantly faster than HomeRF - albeit more expensive as well. Wi-Fi products have already become fairly well established in corporate wide area networks (WANs), which tend to support the older standard for home networks, since consumers tend to prefer to use the same technologies in both home and work settings. Although industry support is split between the two technologies, a number of companies (such as IBM and Proxim itself) have begun to back both standards.

[Zachary]

One of the examples of HomeRF is Bluetooth. HomeRFlike Bluetooth is a specification for connectivity and mobility in a home-like environment. HomeRF Working Group has developed a specification for wireless communications in the home called the Shared Wireless Access Protocol (SWAP).