Not to my surprise, the VESA architectures uses the IP protocol. As the
Internet invades and pervades the home, it appears to be pretty silly to
fight IP.
VESA and the 1394 Trade Association have pretty powerful members, and by
basing the protocol on IP, the Internet interests should be on board also.
Not everything VESA has floated has succeeded, but this one holds some
promise.
BS
-----Original Message-----
From: VESA Office [mailto:moderator.at.vesa.org]
Sent: 20 August 1999 12:43
To: VESA.at.vesa.org Home Network Specification Reviewer
Subject: Home Network Proposed Specification
Dear Recipient,
The VESA Home Network Committee is proud to announce the draft completion
of its first specification. This specification is the culmination of many
engineering-years of effort by participants from many industries including
telecommunications, computer, consumer electronics, home automation and
semiconductors.
A white paper giving a general overview of the specification is available
at www.vesa.org. This specification is intended to be used for
data, A/V, telephony and automation in the home. It is the only
specification that defines the network from the media and physical layer up
to the application layer for total interoperability.
The specification uses 1394b, a long distance variant of 1394-1995, as its
backbone and is capable of connecting to other networks such as Ethernet,
HomePNA, CEBus or X-10. IP (Internet Protocol) is included as the network
layer and web servers and browsers are used to access devices over the
network with an XML interface for device to device control. The Web serving
and browsing can be done in a cluster without a room-to-room backbone.
Subjects included in the specification are:
Architecture, including interface to other networks
Media Physical Layer
TCP/IP Network Layer
User-to-Device Control using Web browsers and servers
Device-to-Device Control using XML
Home Network Management
The VESA Home Network Committee would like your feedback on this specification.
Your input will allow us to improve the specification so that it is more
useful to the industry. Feel free to pass this document along to colleagues
and associations you feel would be interested. All comments are welcome.
The draft specification can be found at www.vesa.org/vhn.pdf.
Additionally, we would like to know if you, or another company or
individual known to you, hold patents that may apply to this specification
beyond those patents for 1394. If you hold a patent that may apply, we ask
that you inform us and if you anticipate offering a royalty-free license or
if you anticipate licensing to applicants under fair and reasonable terms.
We are also interested in any other intellectual property concerns you may
envision for the specification.
In order to have your comments considered they must be received by 5:00pm
PDT Friday, September 17. Please e-mail your response to review.at.vesa.org.
We appreciate your efforts toward making the VESA Home Network
Specification one that will be useful to the industry and help build the
home networking market.
Sincerely,
Joel DiGirolamo
Chairman VESA Home Network Committee