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As WideBand Gigabit Networking begins deployment in commercial local area networking installations, developers are now making plans to bring this new networking technology into the home. The WideBand Gigabit Networking Alliance (WGNA), the organization established to manage WideBand as an open standard, has announced the formation of a new workgroup specifically targeted at developing a standard for WideBand networks in the residential environment. This residential implementation of WideBand is being referred to as Res/Net.
There are many reasons that WideBand is ideally suited for application in the residential environment:
1. WideBand is fast. With a usable data rate of 534Mbit/sec dual twisted pairs, it has plenty of bandwidth for present and future residential requirements.
2. WideBand has many second generation networking technology features, including flow control and class of service. These advanced features are very important for many bandwidth-- intensive applications and for capabilities like distance learning that many home users are now demanding.
3. WideBand eliminates data collisions. Unlike Ethernet, WideBand utilizes a technique called "buffered packet synchronization" to eliminate data collisions on the network. This feature is very important for applications like the delivery of streaming video and audio.
4. WideBand operates over standard twisted pair cable (Category 5) as well as over fiber optic cables. Since residences are widely distributed, it will be necessary to employ in the home a networking technology that can be delivered over long distances via fiber and then brought right inside the structure via standard twisted pair cable. WideBand signaling is accomplished over twisted pair cables at distances of up to 100 meters per run, over singlemode fiber at distances up to 3 kilometers, and over multimode fiber for runs up to 40 kilometers.
5. WideBand is affordable. WideBand falls into the price range necessary for implementation in the residential environment. The cost of the WideBand copper cable to fiber interface is substantially less than that...