Convergence of high-speed powerline communication and WiMedia UWB for multimedia home networks

For the future premium home network services, the high volume of network bandwidth and QoS support is essential in the home networks. Even though ultra-wideband (UWB) is considered as a promising technology because of its high bandwidth up to 480 Mbps, it has a limitation of short transmission range. To overcome UWB short coverage, we converge here UWB and high-speed powerline communication. Here we introduce a high-speed powerline communication bridge, more specifically a HomePlug AV and WiMedia UWB bridge. We explain the functions of hardware and software structure of it. Our bridge provides not only the connectivity between two networks but also supports various types of QoS for multi-media services.