26 August 2009 - The first ever test event to assess Quality of Service (QoS) and Multi-session support in both Home Gateway products and reference designs is to be held by the Home Gateway Initiative (HGI) in France next month.

The HGI Test Event builds upon two key pieces of technical work within HGI. The first is the QoS architecture, fully described in the recently published QoS White Paper, HGI-GD013-R2. The second is HGI’s Requirements for Multiple Flows, currently an HGI working draft document (HGI-RWD010-R3).

Chief technology and business officer of the HGI, Duncan Bees, explained: “The Test Event is an exciting development for HGI; for the first time, the industry will have a uniform means of assessing the performance of HGs in these areas which are key for the customer’s multiplay service experience.

“Vendors of HGs and chip or software reference solutions will be able to use the audited test results to demonstrate compliance with any, or all, HGI test. They will benefit by having access to an expert test infrastructure, at no additional cost beyond HGI membership, to run performance tests of high interest to the Service Providers.  Service Providers benefit when vendors choose to share their audited test results in key areas of Home Gateway performance.”

The event, which will run from September 28 to October 2 in Lannion (Brittany, France), will enable each vendor to choose the tests that they wish to participate in. Each participating vendor is allocated an entire day to complete the tests with the assistance of the host lab personnel. Test results will be reviewed and validated between the vendor and the HGI auditing team. Vendors will be free to publish their validated test results, and/or share them with Service Providers, whilst the HGI management committee will publish an anonymous summary of the test results.

Prior to the test event, Mr Bees will be speaking at the Linley Group Processor Conference in San Jose, California (September 16-17) where his presentation will discuss key system-level metrics for Home Gateways in an environment where new broadband services need processors that are not only fast at computing but are able to classify multiple flows, apply QoS and handle gigabit-speed interfaces.

Mr Bees will also be discussing the widening scope for HGI during a panel talk being staged at the IEC’s Broadband World Forum event being held in Paris on September 8.

The HGI, founded in 2004 by nine telecom operators, is shaping the next generation of internet and voice services. Starting from use-cases and service needs, the HGI sets requirements for Home Gateways, infrastructure devices, and the home network. The HGI now has members from across the globe, representing the entire spectrum of players in the broadband home area.