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By Kelly Jackson Higgins
Put Up Your SneakerNet
 What if you could have an Ethernet LAN for y
our home office--without any hub equipment? Microsoft Corp. and Tut Systems are encouraging chip manufacturers to embed Tut's Ethernet-based HomeRun technology into PC microprocessors and other equipment starting this year. PCs, printers and fax machines would then be wired for two-pair Ethernet right out of the box.
Telecommuters could turn any PCs and peripherals into a 1.3- to 1.6-Mbps Ethernet LAN, without moving any twisted-pair wiring. Microsoft's Windows95 already supports HomeRun, and Win98 and Windows NT 5.0 will do the same. Because voice runs on a lower frequency over Ethernet connections, remote workers could hold a teleconference and transmit a file to the printer buffer at the same time. The idea is to aggregate bandwidth for different devices in the home, says Giorgio Vanzini, a business development manager at Microsoft. And the Tut deal is only the beginning: Home LANs will be able to use power lines, coax cable and wireless, too, and Microsoft is looking for partnerships in those areas as
well.
Wiring the home isn't necessarily a headache for all telecommuters, especially for those who keep all their equipment in one room, analysts say. What's more, standard 10-Mbps 10BASE-T Ethernet is inexpensive enough these days to warrant installation into home offices. You can rig a 10BASE-T Ethernet connection simply by drilling a hole in the floor and dropping the line to a hub in the basement, says Tom Nolle, president of CIMI Corp.
Meanwhile, Tut's HomeRun products start shipping this quarter, and they'll be dirt cheap--somewhere around $120 for the NIC and about $150 for an adapter. If that sounds like bargain-basement Ethernet, you're right. This brand of LAN wasn't meant for Bill Gates' house, quips Sal D'iora, president and CEO of Tut Systems.
Turn It On
 First the automobile industry, now the utility industry. Both are rallying behind IP as an underlying infrastructure of internal networks and for co
mmunicating with suppliers. Following the auto industry's lead with its IP-based ANX (Automotive Network Exchange), the utility industry has upgraded its UCA (Utility Communications Architecture) to include TCP/IP as well as the ISO's (International Organization for Standardization) networking protocols, known as OSI. That notoriously heavy and complicated seven-layer set of protocols, now nearly extinct in the U.S., played a role in preventing UCA version 1 from catching on for nearly a decade. But UCA version 2 with its IP enhancements could simultaneously revive flagging interest in UCA and resuscitate those underutilized ISO protocols.
ANX is already gathering speed as an extranet--providing a common network infrastructure over which the big auto makers can conduct business online with multiple tiers of suppliers. UCA, however, remains more of an architecture than an extranet. But don't rule out the possibility of EPRI's (Electric Power Research Institute) UCA someday performing a similar function: Ele
ctric utilities could use UCA technology to share power substations and supply power to one another, says Dan Nordell, a senior consultant for Northern States Power and a member of the UCA development team.
Most utilities already have IP corporate backbones, he points out, so UCA version 2 also could help utilities handle more of their operations remotely. Engineers would be able to monitor power substations from their desktops, for instance, as these sites get linked over corporate intranets.
Experts say the ISO protocols are apt to be used to run some of the real-time process control applications that utilities hope to simplify, such as automating the distribution of power and controlling the devices that dole it out. TCP/IP wouldn't be as effective for such functions because it doesn't guarantee the delivery of a message, Nordell says.
In addition to IP enhancement, UCA version 2 offers a peer-to-peer communication feature that could provide the biggest boost for utilities. The ISO MMS (Manufac
turing Message Specification), derived from the auto industry's effort, is the common protocol spoken by the process-control machines and systems; it also can run atop IP.
One utility that has discovered MMS' usefulness is regional power supplier United Power Association, which is testing UCA version 2. United Power is running UCA's MMS atop an IP frame relay backbone to automate the distribution of electricity, says Jim Goodin, manager of telecommunications at United Power. But there's a catch: Off-the-shelf routers don't run the ISO routing protocols very well, Goodin notes. Routing has been slow, and the routers take a while to locate workstations and devices with ISO addresses, he says.
Not all utilities are rushing to adopt UCA, however. Some, like Union Electric, say they're too busy getting their new businesses and systems ready for deregulation. For now, they're putting UCA on a back burner. It's still in its infancy and not a high priority--yet.
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