Inter|section gateways

The “Residential Gateway” concept did not get a warm welcome at IBM until the name was changed to “Inter|section Gateway” and messaging stressed the vision of an IBM-scale, multi-billion dollar business.

The following slides are from my early work on gateways at IBM.

-- Wayne Caswell

The IBM Residential Gateway Initiative

Every now and then, a technology or idea comes along that is so profound, so powerful, so universal that its impact changes everything --

• The Printing Press• The incandescent Light Bulb• The Automobile• Manned Flight

It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, the world is changed; forever.

This is how IBM’s Lou Gerstner described the Industry’s move to Network Computing (NC).

Computer industry Revenues were about to crack $1 trillion mark.

• They will Grow by about $400 billion in the next 4 years, and

• Half of that growth ($200B) will be in NC.

But this Growth could be Much Greater, and the slow penetration of home PCs & broadband services stands in the way.

The Residential Gateway concept helps Extend the Reach of e-Business by moving towards Universal Access.



This presentation focuses on the Computer Industry view and “not” the newly defined Entertainment-Center PC, even though that device “could” include gateway functions.

It describes IBM-scale Business Computing Trends and the role that Gateways can play.

It takes a Systems View of the consumer household and the Challenges faced there.

Then it introduce a specific kind of residential gateway that resides where the External & Internal networks Intersect -- the "Inter|section Gateway."

Finally, it explores the Opportunity and Challenges that the gateway market faces.


Network Computing, the Internet, Standards-based Web Browsers and the Java programming language are revolutionizing the way we Work, Play and Learn. The implications for Society are profound.

IBM’s NC vision is well received, and we are helping some 10,000 customers extend their reach in Electronic Commerce with Consumers.


Gateways will help Accelerate these e-Business Trends and extend beyond the 40% of US homes that have PCs so the electronic marketplace can Develop more quickly. This will also increase the demand for Enterprise Servers, Storage, Software and Services.

• 'Net-based e-Commerce was $3B in 1998, expected to grow to $100B by 2000.

• If gateways can make this happen just 1 Day Earlier, the benefit is some $400M.

• If this can happen 6 Months earlier, the benefit is $75B.

Internet makes Market Entry Easier, and IBM's largest enterprise customers see tremendous Value in extending the Reach of their e-Business applications to touch Millions (or Billions) of people.


Internet makes Market Entry Easier, and the Pace is Increasing.

Information assets (BITS) are replacing physical assets (ATOMS), and the 'Net is migrating from BrochureWare used to market a product -- to actually Defining the product and its business model.

Service Bundling by 'SuperCarriers' will be as revolutionary for telecom as the concept of supermarkets was to Grocery industry (butchers, bakers, green grocer, etc.).

IP-based technologies such as VoIP pose major threats to RBOCs and minimizes the value of local and long distance calling.

RBOCs aren't yet ready to compete. New wireless technologies, such as AT&T's PCS network and MMDS microwave networks, make it possible to Bypass the Local Loop and gain access more quickly

And Ka-band Low Level Satellites will start service late next year.


Technical turmoil in homes -- DVD, DTV, DBS, RG-6 coax, Cat.5 wiring, Fiber, etc. -- has caused a fear of obsolescence and delayed adoption of new products.

Consumers drive today's Information Technologies, but:

•Only 40% of US HH had a PC in '96 (WSJ).

•About half had no plans to buy one (IDC).

•<18% of PC homes are connected to 'net or an online service, even though 55% have modems and 80% of new PCs ship with one.

Along the Technology Acceptance Curve, the PC hasn't quite made the jump from Early Adopter to Early Majority. That’s because of its perceived Cost and Complexity, Lack of Compelling Function to justify the “pain,” and Fear of Obsolescence caused by the Pace of technology.

This turmoil also affects other consumer technologies, and ultimately demand for mainframe services and equipment.


To understand the Challenges we face delivering Broadband Communications “to” the home, it's useful to Understand What's There and How it Got There.

Generally, the Wiring (and even the Devices) are Simple Extensions of Separate Services

• The Lamp that plugs into a Wall Outlet and the electric wiring are extensions of the Electric Company's service.

• The Phone wires (and the phones themselves) access a Voice service and support just two phone lines.

• And the Coax was designed for CATV with about 50 NTSC channels.

None of these services were designed for Data.


So, what happens when you introduce a new Digital Service?

Well, First you need new Wires.

• ISDN and ADSL data services, for example, require Better Quality Phone Lines (cat.5) from the Outside to the PC.

• And Digital Satellite Services, with Hundreds of channels, needs Quad-shielded Coax. Subscribers must install RG-6 between the satellite Dish and Decoder Box.

You also need a Device to handle Media or Protocol Conversion, and maybe the ability to Split signals and Route them to Multiple Devices.

• The Legacy Analog Devices can't accept the Digital Signals, so a new Modem or Decoder box is needed -- for Each Device.


Some Gateway functions can reside anywhere -- even in single purpose devices like passive phone or coax splitters.

• Amplifiers, Modulators, Modems, and TV Tuners can be put in CE equipment like VCRs and TV decoders, Computers, and Security or Structured Wiring systems.

But is “anywhere” the Best place?

• Communications carriers are converging Telephone, Television and Data onto a single “fat pipe” in digital form and need a gateway device to split the signals onto separate networks that connect analog or digital devices.

• Competition is bringing other services (and media), which introduces a need to select between the different services.

The ideal location for these splitting, selecting and converging functions is where the Internal and External networks “intersect” -- on an inside or outside wall of a building -- in the Inter|section Gateway.


Four scenarios to show how Inter|section Gateways might be deployed and used.

The “cloud” in the middle of the chart represents the various Network Services.

And the big Arrows represent whether that scenario fits a “Pull” business model where the consumer decides on the equipment, or a “Push” model where the decision is made by a service provider.


Consumers and businesses with a home office will buy gateways in a "pull" model.

• Home Offices need more than 2 phone lines (Phone, Fax, Data).

• Multiplex phone lines over one set of wires

• Bandwidth for Data access is limited, so customers can't exploit their fast modems (20Kbps vs. 28.8/33.6/56).

• ISDN requires the installation of New Wires.


Where LANs are planned or in place, the gateway can act as a Hub and Communications gateway for PCs, where it can Merge multiple external services onto a Single premises network and provides a platform for CTI, a telephone PBX, and video conferencing.

New "isochronous" LAN technologies now meet QoSrequirements for Voice & Video.

Voice & Video over IP will find its way into small businesses before large ones because the technologies are not yet ready to scale up and support many users on one LAN.

Introducing these technologies more quickly in home offices will accelerate their adoption in the enterprise.


As part of a communication infrastructure, the Inter|section Gateway helps service providers reach new customers and lower operating costs for existing ones.

It provides a platform for differentiated services to generate revenue and guard against competition. These services include CallerID, which can be displayed on televisions instead of a special box.

The gateway also provides a channel to communicate energy pricing information from Utilities.

Just as with the cellular phone or TV set top box, the gateway is provided as part of a service -- a 'Push' business model.

For gateways that include network interfaces to multiple services, we introduce the concept of an Infrastructure Landlord – a custodial service to handle problems and apply enhancements. IBM could serve as an infrastructure landlord.


When Multiple Services (MS) are delivered over a single Multimedia (MM) network, carriers need a way of converting their digital signals to analog and splitting them onto premises networks.

Although this function could be done anywhere, such as in a PC or TV set top device, its ideal physical location is where the external and internal network(s) meet.

If the necessary conversions and signal splitting/combining are done in a gateway, information from one service can be converged with information from another for added value, and the result can be switched or routed to any destination.


As we go digital, what about legacy TVs and premises wiring?

An Inter|section Gateway could do the analog and DTV tuning for ALL TVs rather than having separate TV set-top decoder boxes or each one.

It could reduce redundancy and lower costs by combining the functions of tuning, video decompression, decoding, and amplifying ... not to mention the power supply, cabinet, lightning protection and other electronics.

It could simplify physical connections and channel selection and eliminate “set-top clutter.”

It could extend the capacity of older coax cabling since each cable only has to carry viewed channels and not all channels.

It could add value to legacy devices. Even old analog TVs could display hundreds of channels of analog or digital content and gain features like Internet TV, Caller ID, PiP, Parental Control (V-chip), a home control user interface, and other applications.


A gateway facilitating Network Computing would enable universal access to:

• Education -- for Life-long and Distance Learning.

• Home Health Care -- because it’s is the fastest growing part of Medicare, with costs climbing 23%/yr, compared to 9%/yr for the total Medicare program.

• e-Banking -- which is at the center of e-Commerce.

• Travel -- with Smart Cards that let us access our e-mail and NC applications while on the road --from the screen phone in the airport or TV in the hotel.

• and Government -- since we have a moral, legal and economical Obligation -- to promote Universal Access, especially for people with limited resources.


Specialized / Simplified Computer

Customer & Servicer Access Areas

High speed Back-plane

Pluggable CEC -- Processor, Memory & Control Logic (Bus Arbitration) with Protected OS with Java VM

Pluggable Power Supply (optional battery backup)

Slots for NICs -- (PCI bus) high-riser

Bus Arbitration

Fault Mgt. & Recovery

Firewall Protection

Central Mgt & Updates

Plug-in NICs provide Most of the Function:

POTS, PBX, Cellular

xDSL, PCS, LMDS, PC LAN hub

Home Ctrl: X-10, CEBus, LON...

TV tuner / decoder, MPEG, parental control, web browser

IR/RF Remote

Flexible, Scalable, Modular

Support Peer connection to Distributed Gateways


Standards efforts must define two kinds of standards:

• an Interface for plug-in NICs, so they can work in various flavors of gateways and communicate with each other over a system bus such as PCI, “and”

• an Interface for connecting Peer Gateways to each other over another bus such as Firewire.


Since competitors view gateways as providing strategic leverage, they want to own or control it. That can cause political friction.

• Will a Cable or Satellite company put its tuner card in a gateway managed by a telco competitor?

• Will a telco put its PBX card in a cable company gateway?

• What NICs will be “allowed” in the box?

• And who will act as Infrastructure Custodian, managing the network, handling problems, and applying enhancements?

• Is there a trusted 3rd party that can fulfill this role? Can the RBOCs be trusted for this? The electric utility? The municipal Government? How about IBM?

The gateway is a product “System” --like an Automobile, where you also need gas and oil, service mechanics, a highway to drive on, and even rules of the road.


Success of the Inter|section Gateway depends on having the Vision to create the business model, the gumption and clout to tackle the politics, and the conviction to endure the expected critiques, like the Wright brothers.

If Orville and Wilbur were making their historic first airplane flight today, the Press would point out --

• that the brothers’ first effort was postponed by bad winds,

• that construction of the plane was months behind schedule,

• and that there was no real proof that the consumers would ever be willing to fly in an airplane, because they

• already had good train & boat service, where you could sit in a seat instead of lie on your belly.

QUESTIONS?

This slide describes an environment where homes connect to multiple service providers, each delivered over separate networks.

As these service providers migrate from analog to digital technologies and gain the ability to carry multiple services over their separate networks, they fact the challenge of connecting to the various legacy devices inside without the cost and hassle of running new cabling.

In the mid-1990’s, when these slides were created, less than 55% of US households had PCs. A gateway device could be used to bring information services to non-PC devices.

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Our early vision of a gateway device at the intersection of premise and access networks found several barriers to deployment.

One was the political barrier of expecting a service provider to rely on a gateway that may be owned and managed by a competitor.

Another barrier was the natural logistics of where different access networks connected to the home.

• Electric service almost always connect to homes at the closest point to the electric lines.

• Phone service historically entered the home at the closest point to the telephone: i.e. the kitchen.

• Cable TV service tends to enter where the family TV is: in the living room or family room.

• Terrestrial broadcast or Satellite TV antennas are placed on the roof.

So in reality, there is no logical place where all services connect, unless of course they all come from one provider.

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The Inter|section Gateway can ideally benefit all sorts of market segments as shown.

That’s why I promoted this concept within IBM as a multi-billion dollar opportunity.

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From IBM’s corporate perspective, it doesn’t much matter what form factor the gateway takes or whether it’s in a TV set-top box, a PC, a stand-alone device, or an Inter|section Gateway.

IBM benefits from increased demand for information services, especially those that rely on big, enterprise computers.

Although IBM might be able to build a business as Infrastructure Landlord, it also benefits if gateways are deployed by telcos, cable companies, electric utilities, municipalities, home builders, or consumers themselves.

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This slide summarizes issues raised at a San Francisco roundtable.

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The tornado metaphor is from Geoffrey Moore’s book, “Inside the Tornado,” which was an extension of his popular “Crossing the Chasm” series and described the rapid growth that occurs once a new technology crosses between Early Adopter and Early Majority market segments.

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This pictures a gateway prototype that was built by IBM Microelectronics in Austin. It had the required expansion slots, based on PCI bus, and had:

• A Pluggable Power Supply would allow for low wattage for small devices or higher wattage if needed

• A Pluggable High-riser Bus could support 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit (and future 64-bit) architectures.

• A Pluggable Central Electronics Complex (CEC) features a PowerPC embedded processor, control logic, and embedded OS.

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An Inter|section Gateway can be split in two, with part if it inside the home and part on the outside for easy access by service providers. It does, however, need electric power.

This illustration shows how several gateway components (or separate gateways) could be interconnected over a high-speed bus like IEEE 1394 (aka Firewire).

The concept of distributing gateway functions is not dissimilar to the concept of a PC with expansion slots or that of a stack of consumer electronics in the entertainment center.

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The early gateway architecture, as envisioned in EIA/TIA TR-41.5 standards, contained two sets of expansion slots : one for service providers and one for premise networks. Consumers would only be able to access the premise network cards.

This design splits the gateway functions into physical boxes, one mounted on an outside wall, and a PC-based box that could be mounted inside.

Conceptually, the consumer could access and configure either portion with any web browser and would not need an attached keyboard and display.

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Here’s one way that multiple service providers could participate with their own gateway device.

In reality, we may never see this. There’s a natural monopoly once one provider delivers multiple services over their high-speed broadband pipe.

The cost of building an overlay network keeps competitors at bay, and even if new entrants appear, the efficiencies of bundling make it easy to adjust prices to keep out competitors.

The biggest natural monopoly, due to its superior bandwidth is fiber optics (i.e. fiber-to-the-home, or FTTH).

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After disappointing sales for the year, IBM Microelectronics pulled funding from a home networking system-on-a-chip (SOC) design that would have paired an embedded PowerPC processor with memory, control logic, a power-line modem based on HomePlug, a wireless modem based on HomeRF, and a phone-line modem based on HomePNA.

We had envisioned putting all of that function on a small circuit card that could be put into a familiar form factor such as shown in this physical mockup.

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My vision for SOC development was to create a line of thin service gateways and companion adapters that could communicate over power-line (HomePlug), wireless (HomeRF), and cat.6 cabling (Ethernet or 1394).

The previous slide showed a familiar form factor of a surge protector with embedded electronics that could put a phone or Ethernet outlet anywhere there was need for a phone, PC, or Internet-connected TV.

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Slides like this one show forecasts of gateways, home networks, and PCs.

Missing from this is a high-level view of how such growth affects service providers and their demand for enterprise-scale IT equipment, as well as the many other beneficiaries in the circular value chain (from a previous chart).

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Although market researchers like In-Stat, Forrester, and Parks Associates put the RG market forecast in the Billions, I was more aggressive in describing the opportunity.

Note that there’s a difference between opportunity and forecasted and actual deployments.

Understanding that difference, and the market drivers and inhibitors, is what helps a company maximize its capabilities by exploiting strengths, addressing inhibitors, and partnering where needed.

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UTEL’s gateway was like a home PBX that did not rely on phone wiring but that could put an RJ-11 or RJ-45 jack anywhere it was needed.

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General Instrument’s gateway was a TV set-top box that could adapt to existing premise networks. It could serve as a “master STB” for all TVs and PCs.

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Global Converging’s gateway was like a cordless phone base station acting as a home PBX.

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When I discovered Savoy’s CyberHouse, I was impressed with its Client/Server architecture, where the system itself could be contained in a server device (PC, security panel, etc), with access from any client device (PC, PCTV, phone, etc).

Type Managers, like device drivers, could be written to expand support to any new device or protocol.

I eventually convinced IBM to rewrite Savoy’s user interface and include their software in IBM HomeDirector but was disappointed that IBM never exploited Savoy’s extensibility.

IBM spun off HomeDirector as a separate company aimed at selling a structured wiring system into high-end new homes. In my view, they missed an opportunity to capture the much larger retrofit market.

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Central & Southwest Communications was an early gateway manufacturers. Their first deployment of a low-speed utility gateway in Laredo, TX served as a test-bed for extremes of heat and dust and for customer support of Spanish-speaking customers.

When the City of Austin issues an RFP for city-wide fiber optic infrastructure, IBM and CSW partnered on a response. In the end, however, powerful lobbyists from Southwestern Bell (which acquired AT&T and took their name) convinced the legislature to outlaw municipally owned network infrastructure.

Years later, I joined with consumer advocates to defeat a bill that would have also made it illegal for municipalities to install their own Wi-Fi networks.

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IBM was one of several companies doing development and working on standards for several different wireless technologies, including Bluetooth, HomeRF, and Wi-Fi. I represented IBM in the HomeRF Working Group and served as Marketing Chairman.

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IBM was one of several companies doing development and working on standards for several different wireless technologies, including Bluetooth, HomeRF, and Wi-Fi. I represented IBM in the HomeRF Working Group and served as Marketing Chairman.

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This conceptual chart shows the impact of pushing on market drivers and addressing market inhibitors to cause forecasted outcomes to occur earlier. The benefits of such initiatives can be huge!

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I represented IBM in TR41.5, a Residential Gateway standards subcommittee of the EIA/TIA.

These last slides are from a presentation I gave on OSGi, another standards initiative the IBM was involved in.

The Open Services Gateway Initiative focused on the software/middleware part of gateway standards.

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Good times. This particular chart brings back memories since it was a collaborative effort between me and Bellcore’s Paul Schumate during a discussion that occurred during an earlier TR41.5 meeting.

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NOTE that the RF architecture shows Access Network modules plugging into the left side of the RG, and Premises Network modules plugging into the right side. In actuality, the connections are on the bottom and plug into whatever side of the gateway that the manufacturer allows.

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NOTE that the RF architecture shows Access Network modules plugging into the left side of the RG, and Premises Network modules plugging into the right side. In actuality, the connections are on the bottom and plug into whatever side of the gateway that the manufacturer allows.

Additional Slides