Exclusive Interview - Duncan Bees - HGI

Connected Home Global Series speaks exclusively to Duncan Bees, Chief Technical and Business Officer of the Home Gateway Initiative


What is a Home Gateway, and how does HGI help define it?

The HG is the central interconnection platform within the home that delivers broadband access to consumers. It connects the broadband link with the in-home broadband distribution network; provides Quality of Service, security, and wireless access; and more and more, it is used as an application platform for services and applications. The HGI is the industry body which defines the technical requirements for the HG, taking into account the service needs of the BSPs and the capabilities of the technology industry. One of the major initiatives that HGI is driving is HG testing.

Why is testing of the HG so important for operators?

The HG has very complex requirements that include classifying and prioritising traffic; routing and bridging; management and applications delivery.  The HG must operate 24 hours a day to ensure an uninterrupted, reliable service. While the HG’s performance and features are key, the HG has unique requirements for reliability.  And industry-wide effort to standardise the testing requirements for the HG is an important step to improve the operators’ ability to delivery reliable broadband access for consumers.

How is HGI helping to address testing requirements?

HGI is forming agreed and standardised test suites together with a structured, annual test event. A large number of major HG vendors participate, and for those vendors, operators have a much reduced need to pre-test HG products prior to formal qualification.  HGI is focusing on key technical requirements like software modularity, IPv6, HG performance and Quality of Service - all of which are of major importance..

Why is software modularity on the HG so important for applications delivery?

In addition to its role as an interconnection platform, the HG is an always-on, powerful applications platform. The HGI and partner organisations have worked to ensure that applications can be flexibly installed on HGs according to the particular needs of subscribers.  With software modularity, BSPs can install and remove software bundles on demand and the HG provides a controlled environment for application processing without impacting data routing and Quality of Service capabilities.  Examples of downloadable applications include energy management, data storage, and diagnostics.


What is the role of the BSP in offering energy management services?

BSPs are using the HG as an application platform, building on HG interconnection to broadband and home networks, whilst also applying other service offerings to consumers. It is therefore essential that the BSPs link with Smart Meters as needed.  The BSPs are also responsible for providing the customer with the ability to visualise and control energy consumption and schedule smart appliances. 

The Home Energy Management (HEM) provides the tools for subscriber to visualise and manage their energy consumption. Consumers can better understand the energy they are using and their historic and current energy use patterns, can schedule and manage smart appliances, and can be alerted to overload conditions. Broadband service providers within the Home Gateway Initiative (HGI) are working with Home Gateway manufacturers and many industry stakeholder groups to define service and technology requirements for a HEM service.

How does the HG support next generation communication?

People consume communication services today in a very different way than the past. Traditional voice services are being supplanted with enriched services on a variety of platforms. Operators are staying ahead of the game by offering higher quality voice calling and mix of traditional phone, smart phone and DECT services in a simple example, consumers could click a tv-menu to initiate a voice call – and vote on their favourite singer! The HG is a critical component to enabling Next Generation Communications, and the HGI is defining use-cases and technical requirements for these services. 

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About Duncan Bees

A systems engineer and development manager with more than twenty year's experience in telecommunications, Duncan Bees is currently Chief Technical and Business Officer at the Home Gateway Initiative. Prior to this appointment, Duncan was Technical Advisor at PMC-Sierra, working closely with carriers to understand home networking requirements and to translate those into specifications for Home Gateway and ONT chips. He also ran PMC’s System Vision Teams in Access System, VoIP, and Chip-Interconnects, leading to the definition of a range of chip products. Duncan also represented PMC within the Home Gateway Initiative, where he co-chaired the QoS technical group and authored major parts of the HGI specification. He was also a member of the RapidIO Steering Committee and attended or contributed to the Broadband Forum (then DSL Forum), DLNA, ITU, IETF, PCI-SIG, and Advanced Switching. Previously, Duncan worked at Bell Northern Research and Northern Telecom, where he managed the CDMA Speech and Data R&D group, and delivered many Base Station Controller products to the field Duncan holds a Degree of Applied Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of British Columbia (CA) and Master of Electrical Engineering in Digital Signal Processing from the University of McGill (CA). The HGI was founded and launched by nine telecom operators (Belgacom, BT, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, KPN, TeliaSonera, NTT, Telefonica and Telecom Italia) in 2004, and now has members from five continents, representing the entire spectrum of actors in the broadband home arena. The main tasks of the HGI are to establish home gateway-related technical and interoperability specifications and provide input to standardisation bodies.


About Home Gateway Initiative (HGI)

The Home Gateway Initiative (HGI) comprises major broadband service providers (BSPs) and leading vendors of digital home equipment, technologies, software, and services. This year it is sponsoring the Best Innovation in Software Modularity and Applications for Home Gateways and Best innovation in Home Network Energy Efficiency categories at the 'Connected Home 2011' Awards

HGI has more than 60 companies worldwide in its ranks, and it continues to be strongly influential in shaping the way that services are delivered to the home.  Here we catch up with HGI’s Chief Technical and Business Officer, Duncan Bees, to discuss issues in the industry and why the Home Gateway (HG) is of such importance for next generation communications, smart energy use and other aspects of modern communication.

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> Duncan Bees is spoke at Connected Home Global Summit on Tuesday May 24 2011 about 'New Connected Home Use Cases'


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