HomeGrid Forum Accredits Lab and Awards First MIMO Certification

HomeGrid Forum's Board of Directors today announced two advances in wired home networks, with the accreditation of test house TRaC Global to perform MIMO testing of G.hn silicon and systems, and the successful certification of Marvell Semiconductor's G.hn silicon for MIMO operation over powerlines. While G.hn networks are already considered a future-proof investment, adding MIMO to G.hn's powerline mode establishes an even higher level of performance and service quality. With the growing demand for increasingly complex and higher rate content delivery, MIMO's capabilities assure high quality of service with an excellent customer experience.

The HomeGrid compliance and interoperability (C&I) Work Group completed the MIMO test specification in April 2014 as TRaC prepared for MIMO testing. HomeGrid audited and approved TRaC in mid-May; making TRaC “open for business” for MIMO testing. Marvell immediately submitted its G.hn chipset for MIMO certification.

Marvell's G.hn chipset (consisting of the Marvell 88LX3142 G.hn digital baseband processor and Marvell 88LX2718 G.hn analog frontend) passed the tests and was awarded MIMO certification by HomeGrid. The Marvell chipset’s certifications have been updated to include MIMO on HomeGrid’s Integrators List.

John Egan, president of HomeGrid, said, “We congratulate HomeGrid's C&I Work Group for continuing to set records for delivery of the highest quality test specifications and also TRaC, for demonstrating once again their capabilities by quickly adding MIMO testing.”

Egan continued, “HomeGrid congratulates Marvell on the addition of MIMO certification to their G.hn chipset’s portfolio. With these advances, G.hn is the first wired home networking technology to have an operational MIMO certification test regimen and the first with a certified MIMO chipset. G.hn MIMO certification reinforces G.hn's industry leadership in verified and certified functionalities, interoperability and deliverables.”

Philip Poulidis, Vice-President and GM of the Internet of Things Business Unit of Marvell said, “We are proud that Marvell’s G.hn chipset has achieved HomeGrid Forum’s certification for MIMO. Our G.hn chipset was one of the first to market over two years ago, with MIMO built in, and is the world’s first certified powerline MIMO chipset. Marvell’s G.hn chipset enables system companies to satisfy the needs of service providers to enable next-generation networked homes.”