Architectures for home systems

The basic concept of the home system is to cover diverse requirements by providing a home network which can be used by all products as a general-purpose data highway supporting information transfer and control. In practice there is a spectrum of requirements, and therefore one single universal link cannot be optimum for all applications. In the home, where cost is always important and data rates vary from the room thermostat, switching every few minutes, to the high definition TV with data rates of many MHz, one needs a choice of networks