hi Gary, uw, William, Roy, and anyone else that’s still here....is anybody watching what’s going on with OSGI and UPnP.
Echelon seems to no longer be on UPnP Steering committee, but are still members, and in a very interesting development, Sun has joined UPnP....almost unbelievable!
Sun joins Microsoft's Universal Plug and Play Forum
Sun Microsystems has entered enemy territory, joining the group of companies working on Microsoft-backed gadget software that competes with Sun's Jini technology.http://www.hometoys.com/
no doubt msft/ UPnP/ Home Plug will be pushing their Simple Control Protocol, but according to this (http://www.ge-smart.com/html/scpstory.html)SCP has been designed not only to co-exist with CEBus, but also with other protocols on the powerline like X-10 and LonWorks. SCP products will probably not be commercially available until sometime in late 2001 When HomePlug was first announced, I said that I thought that this would be compatible with Lonworks and it seems that UpnP appliances will have both the CEBus and the LonWorks standards built into them.
In this article, Echelon's Tennefos questions the feasibility of the path being taken by the Home Plug Alliance.
Powerline Telecom: Old Wires Breed New Possibilities
Michael R. Tennefoss, vice president of product marketing and customer services for Echelon, a company that makes home control devices, argues that while powerline communications may be good for some things, it may not be good for others. "When you look at the different powerline technologies by either Enikia or Intellon there's a big question mark whether the regulations will change to permit them to run, or permit them to run reliably enough for high-speed data and voice applications," Tennefoss said. "These applications would need to operate in the 5-MHz to 40-MHz band, a band slated for a slew of other applications. At this point it's not clear whether the regulations can be changed to permit legal operation of these high-speed, high-frequency devices."
telecommagazine.com
Part of the SCP threat for me was the impression that this would be provided “free” I think in the CC from 2 qtrs ago Oshman when asked about this replied with words to the effect of “they may want to make it sound like it’s free, but in reality, nothing is free” (paraphrasing, correct me if wrong). In an older article I found this:
Moreover, even CEBus has some proprietary aspects. For example, it uses a patented chirp spread-spectrum power-line and RF-wireless communication scheme developed by Intellon. Like Echelon and Smart House LP, Intellon encourages others to use its technology in their products; the company receives royalties from the sale of ICs that implement its protocol. Bear in mind that this is from 1995, Intellon’s high speed powerline protocol has since been adopted by HomePlug and the royalty situation may have changed substantially since this was written.....I really don’t know.http://www.ednmag.com/ednmag/reg/1995/041395/08df2.htm
Here is an interesting schematic showing architecture for the Echonet Consortium in Japan. I found the existence of both CEBus middleware and Lontalk in the physical layer, to be interesting. On the application side, something called HBS, Home Bus System, is specified. It's a bit old, I’ve no idea how relevant it is, if at all, and Echonet progress seems kinda slow so take it fwiw. nikkeibp.com
Despite the stock’s miserable performance, my faith in Echelon’s future is as strong as ever. The only fundamental changes I see are positive....For those with patience, I think this one’s a home run, pun intended. I suspect that over time Echelon will become considered part of the “powercosm” and that Demand Side Management of the power supply may just be the killer app lurking in the shadows.
In this respect, here is an interesting site for keeping track of current thinking on 'future' trends. battelle.org
good luck out there. |
