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Moving ahead with Connected Homes A smart digital home. Imagine this - the volume of your TV and home theatre system is automatically lowered when you answer a phone call. Your mobile phone communicates with your personal computers spontaneously at your command. And you control your home appliances and security system even when you're far from home. This will soon become a reality with the conception of the "Full Service Residential Gateway" (FSRG) prototype, the brainchild of an R&D project carried out at I²R. This is sponsored by the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) as part of its effort to build a digitally connected home. Residential Gateway (RG) or Home Gateway is a device that can connect home appliances and personal computers in your home to the Internet. This differs from conventional gateway or routers which connect home computers to form a network, and provide connections to the Internet. The scope of a 'full service residential gateway' is significantly wider and more versatile. It can connect home theatre systems, security systems, telephones or consumer appliances with Internet, bringing a true digital home closer to reality. One of the most significant features of the FSRG prototype is its adoption of the Open Service Gateway Initiative (OSGi) standard. OSGi is a consortium of more than 80 companies from the computer, telecommunication and consumer electronics industry, including HP, Nokia, IBM, and even car manufacturer BMW. The adoption of this standard distinguishes the FSRG from existing home routers and gateways. Current gateways in the market are not based on any open standard such as OSGi. Thus, such gateways can only provide limited services and interactions between electronics appliances and computer products by the same manufacturer. For example, most homes on local networks use 'non-open gateways'. This design has its drawbacks, as it is difficult for a home owner to add new services or new electronics devices into the owner's network easily. Besides enabling communications with the home gateway, FSRG enables electronics products from different manufacturers to communicate with each other, making different brands compatible! As part of an effort in ensuring compatibility, the home gateway designed by I²R integrates most common networking standards. The gateway provides networking interfaces with Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11b, V.90 modems, ADSL, power lines, Ethernet and phone lines. This allows home appliances and computers to communicate with the gateway via those networks- the gateway is connected to the Internet with ADSL, V.90 modem or the Ethernet. Additionally, its open architecture allows the addition of other emerging networking standards, keeping home owners at the cutting edge of technology. With the OSGi-based gateway installed, one can finally experience the luxury of owning a smart, digital home.
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