Covering the vast majority of current and emerging home networking technologies, standards and trends, this practical resource offers you a comprehensive understanding of this developing area. The book presents an end-to-end reference architecture, where the main residential services are identified and their network requirements are fully analyzed. You find detailed coverage of both wireless and wireline technologies, including IEEE 802.11, Firewire, USB, HiperLAN and Bluetooth. You learn how the technologies work, how they have evolved, what their capabilities are and what markets they target. The book also discusses fixed-wireless and satellite access network alternatives. applications, operational concept, architecture and protocol stack of higher layer technologies that aim to provide convergence between multiple in-home and access networks. The book introduces the concept of the residential gateway (RG) as a single point of network convergence, and explores important considerations for future digital-smart networked homes.