UN agrees global standard for home networking

December 16, 2016

United Nations agency the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has agreed upon G.hn as the global standard for digital home networking.

The G.hn standard aims to deliver a single unified technology for wired home networks.

Having an agreed standard means that electronics manufacturers and service providers will be able to start producing home devices that can communicate with one another.

“There’s a clear market need for a unified networking approach,” said Malcolm Johnson, director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau.

Non-profit group HomeGrid Forum, which works to promote the ITU’s global standardisation efforts, plans to bring together companies in a web seminar to consider the implications of G.hn for the consumer market.

It is also working on compliance and interoperability test programs for the G.hn standard.

“We applaud ITU’s success in achieving this major milestone,” said Matthew Theall, president of HomeGrid Forum.

“This achievement allows chipset providers to begin design of silicon which will be used to create new products that will form the foundation for next-generation whole-home networking.”