Plug-and-Play Forum Expands

Aiming to simplify networking standards groups, the Home API Working Group, created by Compaq, Honeywell, Intel, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, and Philips, is merging with the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) Forum, officials said Thursday.

The idea is to ensure a unified specification for connecting and controlling devices in the home. The UPnP Forum was outlined in January by Microsoft in response to rival Sun Microsystems' Jini technology. Jini also seeks to let devices connect easily to and work within a network.

"There's tremendous interest in a lot of the new digital devices that are being created, and one of the things that makes those devices more valuable is being connected and able to share that digital information," said Greg Sullivan, Microsoft home networking product manager. "The more connectivity among the devices, the more you can do with it. Universal Plug and Play is all about creating an environment where you just plug these things in and they just work."

For the last two years, the Home API Working Group has been in the process of trying to make it easier for developers to write home automation and control applications. In the meantime, the UPnP group was formed with a complimentary goal of making home networking easier so that plug and play finally becomes a reality.

"The goals of the Home API Working Group were really to make it easier for developers to write home automation control applications, and the goals of the UPnP Forum are to develop an architecture to enable simple networking," Sullivan said.

UPnP came to be seen as a superset of the Home API functionality and it made sense for the groups to have a single, unified effort, he said. UPnP is a broad initiative to define schemas for networking a large number of devices in the home. It could include networking such tools as PCs, printers, WebTVs, Web phones, and security cameras.

In another clear symmetry, all the Home API founding members, including Compaq, Honeywell, Intel, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, and Philips, are steering committee members of the UPnP Forum.

In a related move, Microsoft said last week it is supporting Bluetooth, a radio wave-based language that lets mobile phones, laptops, and handheld organizers communicate without cables. The technology stems from a consortium of IBM, Nokia, Ericsson, Intel, and Toshiba, and has won widespread industry support as a communication standard.

One of Microsoft's goals as a promoter of Bluetooth is to help enable scenarios where both wireless and wired solutions work together, enabling Bluetooth devices to discover and use non-Bluetooth devices, including those based on UPnP, Sullivan said.

"We are going to figure out a way for Bluetooth devices to automatically discover and utilize other devices on the network," he said. Ultimately, "Bluetooth devices will be able to discover, access, and utilize UPnP devices, so it combines the universe of devices that can communicate with each other."

Prototype UPnP devices should be available within a year, Sullivan said. Products with Bluetooth chips are expected next summer, according to the Bluetooth consortium.