coverstory2305_cover story 23/05/2013 17:45 Page 3
“Service Providers may need to step in and have traffic management policies in the gateway.” JOHN EGAN, HOMEGRID FORUM
provider is and will continue to be responsible for its managed services and their quality, but not for the quality of unmanaged services.” Conviva's Hui Zhang accepts that the service provider plays a big role in controlling the gateway to the home but predicts that we will begin to see a battle between the service provider and device manufacturers. “Some device manufactures are even introducing their own home gateway equivalent in order to own responsibility. When it comes to quality however, both parties are responsible. While the service provider controls the infrastructure, this is only a fraction of the end to end path. There are certain complications that end devices have to deal with when it comes to the quality of the end user experience. End devices may leverage all the services that the service provider offers, including the home gateway, but ultimately it is the device itself that deals with the final quality that the end user will experience.” QUALITY. According to Andrew Glasspool, managing partner at Farncombe, the network operator or ISP owns the gateway to the home and they are the only people who can guarantee quality. HGI's Bees says that typically, Broadband Service Providers (BSP) provide a managed HG to the customer with support for Quality of Service. “The HG supports various home networking types. The BSP may also supply additional home network infrastructure devices to the consumer. While the BSP is not likely to own or be responsible for any home network physical wiring, the customer is still likely to contact the BSP regarding any problems with the configuration and quality of the home network,” he notes. The Home Grid Forum's Egan notes that G.hn-powered gateways may be retail sourced, and as such, the end user has their responsibilities as well as any remote service offered by vendors. And, as G.hn is fully TR-069 (the Broadband Forum specification for remote
management of customer premise equipment) compliant, the retail customer may find that their Service Provider may offer a service to manage the gateway for them remotely. “Many Service Providers are looking to have the ability to manage down to the G.hn node in the home, if necessary, while initially looking to manage the gateway and its traffic policies to ensure downstream delivery of paid services is at a consistently maximum quality level,” he advises, adding that to protect their investment and the overall quality of experience of their customers Service Providers may need to step in and have traffic management policies in the gateway, otherwise their service metrics may appear poor to
the end user, and the cause be outside the realm of the SP. According to Hitron's Zijlstra, the natural behaviour of customers in such instances is to call the operator who provides the internet/media connection, except for clearly over-the-top content such as YouTube, where the customer is used to access from the PC, accepting the related Internet delays. “Operators will have to deploy a strategy to deal with this in a way that ensures customer satisfaction. In the end, although th ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????t????????????59 59P??%?????? ???????????????????????????????????????????M??????A?????????????????????????????????????????????????????q%?????=QP???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????=QP????????Q???????????????????????????????????()???????????????????????????????????????????=?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Q????????????????????????????????????????????????????L??????????????????????????t?%?????=?????????????????????a!????9?????d??????????????????????????m??u??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????qE??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????t????????5?
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