The connected home is an interesting concept that has evolved from WiFi connected consumer devices like laptops and printers to now extend to connected TVs. Service providers are equally interested in supporting the connected home from two different perspectives. The first angle is in support of HDTV, and supporting the concept of Total Home DVR, which both increases benefits to the consumer as well as allows for less capital expenditure on capital equipment (i.e. one DVR per home instead of two). The other side of connected home pertains to automation and control, security and energy management. It is now a more common belief that wired and wireless technologies are more complimentary than competitive, and as such, there are increasingly more device requirements to support both a primary wireless and primary wired option.The most recent product requirements are specifically looking at WiFi as the primary wireless connection and PLC for the wired. WiFi technology operates in both 2.4 and 5GHz spectrums and now supports data rates up to 600Mbps using an 802.11n 4×4 MIMO configuration; but on the wired front, there are still many competing solutions such as HomePlug, MoCA and ITU G.hn. Though the wired options are not completely settled for the Connected Home applications, the more generally accepted theme is that WiFi + PLC ensures a more reliable experience. This session will explore recent developments in the hybrid approach of Wireless and PLC technologies, including updates on recent M&A activities as well as ongoing debates.

Purva Rajkotia joined Intellon (now Qualcomm Atheros) in 2006 and is the Director of Global Standards and Regulation. He has held various leadership positions in standards organizations like IEEE, 3GPP2,TIA etc. Currently he serves as the vice-chair of IEEE 1905.1, chairman of HomePlug Regulatory Working Group and represents Qualcomm on the HomePlug Board of Directors. Prior to joining Intellon, Mr. Rajkotia held various technical and standards lead roles with Mobile ESPN, Samsung and InterDigital. He holds more than 85 patents in the wireline/wireless industry. Mr. Rajkotia holds Masters of Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and Master of Business Administration degrees from Colorado State University.

Dr. Monk is responsible for new technology and standards activities at Entropic. Previously, he led the engineering development of Entropic’s coax-based multimedia networking chipset. This technology was standardized by MoCA, the Multimedia over Coax Alliance, and is now the de facto standard for multimedia home networking over coax for the majority of Pay TV service providers in the United States. Dr. Monk is CTO of MoCA and serves on the MoCA Board of Directors. Prior to co-founding Entropic he was involved in the development of cable and satellite integrated circuits at Conexant and ComStream Corporation and was a researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He is involved in various organizations, including Chairman of the UCSD Corporate Affiliates Program, Co-chair of the CommNexus Semiconductor SIG, the Technical Advisory Boards of the UCSD Electrical Engineering Department and the USD Engineering Department and is a member of  the CONNECT Public Policy Committee and the EvoNexus Incubator Committee. Dr. Monk holds a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego.

Mark Schmidt has been with Motorola (formerly General Instrument) for 20 years in the Advanced Technology group performing system engineering and analysis for satellite and cable TV. More recently he has been evaluating and testing a variety of home networking and in-home multimedia distribution systems including HomePlug, MoCA, HPNA, WiFi/802.11n and wireless HDMI. He has been a member of the technical working group of the Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI) consortium. Prior to joining General Instrument he worked at M/A-COM Linkabit in military satellite communication systems engineering. Mr. Schmidt holds a MSEE degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.MODERATOR:
Jason Ellis
Staff Manager, Business Development, Qualcomm
Jason Ellis is a staff manager of business development for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies New Markets and is responsible for 2G/3G/4G cellular communications for Machine-to-Machine connectivity including Smart Energy. Previously, Ellis focused on non-cellular wireless communications encompassing Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Ultra Wideband and other emerging modem technologies including low-power, short-range for wireless health and fitness, as well as wireless video for consumer electronics and service providers.

Ellis spent a decade helping regulate, standardize and commercialize wireless technologies for multi-billion dollar industries while working at both Fortune 100 companies and venture capital funded start-ups. Prior to joining Qualcomm, he was director of business development and marketing for UWB pioneer Staccato Communications. Previous experience includes leading business development for the General Atomics Advanced Wireless Group and working on wired/wireless architectures for Raytheon Systems. He has served a number of coalitions and industry working groups including those organized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (Vice-Chair, Exec Committee, Technical Editor), 1394 Trade Association (BoD), the WiMedia Alliance (BoD and Marketing Committees), USB-IF (various committees), Bluetooth SIG (Ecosystem and Marketing Committees) and many others. Ellis earned a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of California, San Diego. He has also studied Strategic Business and International Finance at Oxford University and has 7 issued US Patents.

Questions? Contact Michele Yoshioka at michele@commnexus.org