IEEE 1905
IEEE 1905.1 is an IEEE standard which defines a network enabler for home networking supporting both wireless and wireline technologies: IEEE 802.11, IEEE 1901 powerline networking, IEEE 802.3 Ethernet and Multimedia over Coax.
The IEEE P1905.1 working group had its first meeting in December 2010 to begin development of convergence digital home network specifications. Around 30 organizations participated in the group and achieved approval of the draft P1905.1 standard in January 2013 with final approval and publication by IEEE-SA in April 2013.
The IEEE 1905.1 Standard Working Group is sponsored by the IEEE Power Line Communication Standards Committee.
nVoy officially certifies products as 1905.1-compliant and is intended to become the dominant brand name and identity for all 1905.1 devices. Not to be confused with the Pogo device of the same name nor various networked devices named Envoy, e.g. from ASUS and others. Major chip vendors endorsed the certification regime. Consumer-level lists of features and benefits of IEEE 1905 are also the responsibility of nVoy certifiers. .''
Benefits
The benefits of 1905.1 technology include simple setup, configuration and operation of home networking devices using heterogeneous technologies. Leveraging the performance, coverage and mobility benefits of multiple interfaces enables better coverage and throughput in every room for both mobile and fixed devices.Standardizing the use of multiple networking technologies to transmit data to a single device in a transparent manner enables powerful use cases in home networks:
- Increase the capacity by load balancing different streams over different links.
- Increase robustness of transmissions by switching streams from one link to another in case of link degradation.
- Better integrate consumer appliances with limited network connectivity and high end network devices into a common network accessible via 802.11ac and.11n for appliance control and media streaming purposes
- Unify device certification under one regime for all major networking protocols
- Generally reduce the number of different devices required and permit storage, processing and user interface functions to migrate to purpose-specific peripherals on a 2 to 5 gigabit networked "bus" or backbone.
For service providers and carriers
- Self-Install: Common setup procedures for adding devices to a network simplifies network setup for consumers; Reduces call volumes and truck rolls.
- Advanced Diagnostics: Network monitors itself to maintain reliable operation; simplifies troubleshooting
- Aggregated Throughput: Single devices aggregate throughput from multiple interfaces to ensure sufficient performance and coverage for video applications.
- Fallback/Failover: Optimizes the hybrid network by opening alternative routes when a link is down or congested which; increases reliability on the customers’ network.
- Load Balancing: Limits network congestion by enabling a hybrid network to intelligently distribute streams over different paths.
- Multiple Simultaneous Streams: Network utilizes multiple media simultaneously enabling multiple streams to exceed the maximum throughput of a single medium. Where dual link aggregation is supported, simultaneous streaming can be even faster, e.g. between router- or network-attached storage devices and high-bandwidth displays (such as Ultra high definition television, making these devices far less troublesome to support in-home.
For consumers and retailers
- Ability to upgrade some components of a home network with ensured interoperability with legacy equipment.
- Simplifies network setup and security authentication with consistent password procedures and button push security configuration.
- Increases performance and coverage of home networks which increases the networks capacity to increase overall number of devices in the home.
Technical overview
This abstraction layer provides a unique EUI-48 address to identify a 1905.1 device. This unique address is useful to keep a persistent address when multiple interfaces are available and facilitate seamless switching of traffic between interfaces. The standard does not define loop prevention and forwarding protocol. A 1905.1 device is compatible with existing IEEE 802.1 bridging protocols.
The management of a 1905.1 device is simplified by the use of a unified Abstraction Layer Management Entity and with the use of a data model accessible with CWMP
Architecture
The architecture designed for the abstraction layer is based on two 1905.1 service access points accessible to upper layers: a 1905.1 MAC SAP and a 1905.1 ALME SAP.The ALME is a unique management entity supporting different media dependent management entities and a flow-based forwarding table. A 1905.1 protocol is used between ALMEs to distribute different type of management information such as: topology and link metrics.
1905.1 Control Message Data Unit frame consists of an 8 octets header and a variable length list of TLVs data elements which is easily extendable for future use.
The generic CMDU frame format has the following structure
| Message version | Reserved | Message Type | Message ID | Fragment ID | Last Fragment Indicator | Relay Indicator | Reserved | List of TLV |
| 1 octet | 1 octet | 2 octets | 2 octets | 1 octet | 1 bit | 1 bit | 6 bits | variable length |
Vendor specific CMDU are supported via Message Type 0x0004.
Each TLV has the following basic structure:
Vendor specific TLV are supported via TLV Type 11.
The EtherType value assigned to 1905.1 CMDU is 0x893a.
Features
The list of 1905.1 features is listed below.Topology
1905.1 provides a tool to get a global view of the network topology regardless of the technologies running in the home/office network.The Abstraction Layer generates different topology messages to build this protocol's topology:
- Discovery to detect direct 1905.1 neighbors
- Notification to inform network devices about a topology change
- Query/Response to get the topology database of another 1905.1 device
To detect a non-1905.1 bridge connected between two 1905.1 devices, the Abstraction Layer also generates a LLDP message with the nearest bridge address that is not propagated by 802.1D bridges.
Topology information collected by a 1905.1 device are stored in a data model accessible remotely via TR-069 protocol.
Link metrics
The 1905.1 ALME provides a mechanism to obtain a list of metrics for links connecting two 1905.1 devices:- Packet errors
- Transmitted packets
- MAC Throughput capacity
- Link availability
- PHY rate
Forwarding rules
The 1905 ALME provides a list of primitives to manage forwarding rules per flow. This feature may be used to distribute dynamically the different flows over the different technologies.To classify the flows, a set or subset of the following elements can be used:
- MAC Destination address
- MAC Source address
- Ethertype
- Vlan ID
- Priority Code Point
Security setup
The goal of 1905.1 security setup is to allow a new 1905.1 device to join the network with a unified security procedure even if the device has multiple interfaces running different encryption methods.Three unified security setup procedures are defined:
- 1905.1 Push Button
- 1905.1 User Configured Passphrase/Key
- 1905.1 Near Field Communication Network Key
Two 1905.1 messages are used for the push button method:
- Push Button Event Notification
- Push Button Join Notification
If the User Configured Passphrase/Key is used, the user needs to type/remember only one sequence of US-ASCII characters and the ALME will derive different security passwords for the different technologies through SHA-256 function.
If the NFC network Key is used, the user needs to touch the new 1905.1 device with an NFC equipped smartphone already member of the 1905.1 network.
AP auto-configuration
This feature is used to exchange Wi-Fi Simple Configuration messages over an authenticated 1905.1 link. Using this protocol a 1905.1 AP Enrollee can retrieve configuration parameters from a 1905.1 AP Registrar. Thus AP Auto-Configuration is used to simplify the setup of a home network consisting of multiple APs – eliminating the need for the user to manually configure each AP.A specific 1905.1 CMDU frame is used to transport WPS messages.
If an AP Enrollee is dual-band capable, the auto-configuration procedure may be executed twice.
Implementation
Qualcomm Atheros products implementing 1905.1 are named .In January 2012, HomePlug Powerline Alliance announced support for IEEE 1905.1 certification.
The consumer certification program named nVoy was announced in June 2013 and first certified chips that " support the new nVoy HomePlug Certification for IEEE 1905.1 compliance" were announced at that time . Consumer-level products were expected by year-end 2013. but were delayed until 2014 consumer shows - as of December 2013 there were no nVoy-certified consumer products; small-network-focused review sites had no products to review.