SAN DIEGO, June 12, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Entropic Communications, Inc., a leading technology solution provider for connected home entertainment, announces the availability of Parameterized Quality of Service (PQoS) and network management diagnostics for its c.LINK(tm) platform. Entropic is the first home networking chip company to incorporate PQoS into its chipset, resolving existing service provider concerns regarding guaranteed bandwidth for premium services in home entertainment networks.
Solving Bandwidth Challenges
Today's challenge for service providers (telco, cable and satellite) is the limited ability to set aside and guarantee enough bandwidth for premium service delivery. This problem will only be compounded in the future as consumers add more non-operator traffic and devices to their home entertainment network. System operators will be faced with the challenge of supporting both real-time streaming applications and asynchronous data traffic, like Internet access, and coexisting with already installed premium services such as analog, digital or IPTV over the home entertainment network. To provide a satisfactory user experience, it will be critical to ensure that all data flows for each application receive guaranteed bandwidth and meet latency requirements.
Today, 802.1p provides a method to prioritize traffic on the network. However, this mechanism does not make distinctions between types of data nor does it guarantee bandwidth.
Entropic is addressing service providers' bandwidth challenges by adding PQoS functionality to their chipsets. With Entropic's c.LINK chipset incorporating PQoS, service providers will now be able to reserve CPE (customer premise equipment) bandwidth exclusively for video feeds and manage packet delivery to and within a home entertainment network so multiple streams of data and video will peacefully co-exist. A PQoS enabled network avoids costly operator support and poor subscriber experience by providing guaranteed performance by reserving the required network bandwidth based on the characteristics of the data.
"Service providers and their OEMs have been clamoring for PQoS as a way to provide guaranteed video services while simultaneously allowing access to personal content without having to worry about service interruptions or truck rolls to the customer's premise," said John Graham, VP of marketing for Entropic. "We are the first chip company in the home entertainment networking space to offer this capability to benefit service provider managed networks and their subscribers."
Entropic's c.LINK architecture provides a parameterized QoS mechanism that is aligned with the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) 3.0 management and 802.1ab (AVB) proposals. The subsequent implementation is simple and versatile enough that operators can deploy a standards based UPnP 3.0 QoS management system or create a custom QoS solution using alternative higher layer QoS services.
Enabling Remote Diagnostics
In addition, c.LINK now provides a mechanism for operators to obtain information about the network which will allow them to remotely diagnose subscriber network problems and reduce the need for costly truck rolls to a subscriber's home. This feature is compliant with the DSL Forum's TR-069 specification.
Entropic's network diagnostics enable the service provider to remotely map the in-home network topology by accessing a single node and determining PHY rates between all the nodes simultaneously to ensure connectivity and consistency of all services including premium content. This powerful diagnostic capability allows the service provider to quickly make decisions regarding the source of a potential problem and can even isolate the problem to a specific segment of the in-home coax network. Ultimately, Entropic's addition of remote diagnostics will allow for more efficient and cost effective network management and enable operators to provide enhanced customer service through faster problem resolution.
Availability
These architectural enhancements will be available with all c.LINK EN2210 chipsets and via firmware download in Q3 2007.
About Entropic Communications
Entropic Communications, Inc. is the leading developer of LAN and WAN networking of multimedia for the connected home. Entropic's products allow consumers to easily share digital entertainment throughout the home, fundamentally changing the way content such as movies, music and images are stored and networked by consumers. For more information: www.entropic.com.
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