Residential Gateway
A residential gateway is the technical interface between a living environment and the outside world. It thus fulfills two basic tasks: First, the connection to the outside world - in addition to analog telephone or ISDN, an Internet connection is particularly important here. DSL, the infrastructure of cable television or own broadband networks such as fiber optics are used for this. Second, the residential gateway provides an interface for all networks and bus systems available within the residential environment. These are used to network devices and connect them to the residential gateway.
In the context of OSGi (Open Services Gateway Initiative) and other approaches, a service gateway - and thus a residential gateway - is a kind of extended router functionality, but as a gateway (service aggregator on a small scale) for the entire house. Embedded Java and OSGi are very much favored here, not least because a very general service orientation also requires very strong platform independence. Here there is a strong overlap in requirements with the MHP approach for the implementation of services in digital television .
The most important networks and bus systems that communicate with the residential gateway are listed below:
- IP network for the distribution of Internet and data. On the one hand, it connects all PCs to provide them with internet access and to enable data exchange. But it is also used to distribute multimedia content.
- Wired bus systems primarily for networking electrical installation devices.
- Radio-based bus systems that are particularly suitable for subsequent installation.
- Infrastructure for sending and receiving infrared commands.