Highly scalable, large density, in-home wireless connectivity

The average UK home has a growing number of between 2 and 3 television receivers, each of which needs to be able to reliably display pictures from the increasing variety of sources available to and within the home, including - of course - from the PVR. Wired solutions are possible, but the attractiveness and ease of installation of ´no new wire´ solutions - like DECT for telephones - makes these a technology of choice for the consumer. To be successful, the technology needs to be very easy to use and highly scalable, delivering transparent high performance to a large number of devices within the home, even in high-density housing situations. We have looked at a number of candidate technologies (including 802.11, DVB-T and mains-borne solutions) and have come to the belief that no existing or proposed technology meets the medium to long term needs of consumers. The presentation looks at the requirements and candidate technologies, and likely spectrum congestion issues. It makes proposals for simple enhancements which could allow the delivery of required performance, but yet which also stimulate questions as to how appropriate amounts of spectrum could be made available for such functionality.