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A home network or home area network (HAN) is a type of computer network, specifically a type of local area network (LAN),^[1] that facilitates communication among devices within the close vicinity of a home. Devices capable of participating in this network, for example, smart devices such as network printers and handheld mobile computers, often gain enhanced emergent capabilities through their ability to interact. These additional capabilities can be used to increase the quality of life inside the home in a variety of ways, such as automation of repetitive tasks, increased personal productivity, enhanced home security, and easier access to entertainment.

Infrastructure devices

Certain devices on a home network are primarily concerned with enabling or supporting the communications of the kinds of end devices home-dwellers more directly interact with. Unlike their data center counterparts, these "networking" devices are compact and passively cooled, aiming to be as hands-off and non-obtrusive as possible.

A router is key in a typical home network and performs the key function of network address translation giving independent private addresses to each device. These devices often come with an integrated wireless access point and 4-port Ethernet switch. The switch is used to allow devices on the home network to talk to one another via Ethernet; while the needs of most home networks are satisfied with the built-in wireless and/or switching capabilities of their router, some situations require the addition of a separate switch with advanced capabilities. For example the fact a typical home router has 4 to 6 Ethernet LAN ports, so a router's switching capacity could be exceeded. Another example may be that a network device might require a non-standard port feature such as power over Ethernet (PoE). (IP cameras and IP phones). A wireless access point is required for connecting wireless devices to a network. When a router includes this device, it is referred to as a wireless router, which is predominantly the case nowawadays.

A gateway establishes physical and data link layer connectivity to a WAN like the Internet. Home routers provided by internet service providers (ISP) usually have the modem integrated within the unit. It is effectivelys a client of the external DHCP servers owned by the ISP.

Controllers for home automation or smart home hubs act as a gateway and router for low-power wireless networks of simple, non-data-intensive devices such as light bulbs and locks.^{[citation needed]}

Connectivity and protocols

Home networks may use either wired or wireless connectivity methods that are found and standardized on local area networks or personal area networks. One of the most common ways of creating a home network is by using wireless radio signal technology; the 802.11 network as certified by the IEEE. Most wireless-capable residential devices operate at a frequency of 2.4 GHz under 802.11b and 802.11g or 5 GHz under 802.11a. Some home networking devices operate in both radio-band signals and fall within the 802.11n or 802.11ac standards. Wi-Fi is a marketing and compliance certification for IEEE 802.11 technologies.^[2] The Wi-Fi Alliance has tested compliant products, and certifies them for interoperability.

Low power, close range communication based on IEEE 802.15 standards has a strong presence in homes. Bluetooth continues to be the technology of choice for most wireless accessories such as keyboards, mice, headsets, and game controllers. These connections are often established in a transient, ad-hoc manner and are not thought of as permanent residents of a home network. A "low-rate" version of the original WPAN protocol was used as the basis of Zigbee.

Endpoint devices and services

Home networks may consist of a variety of devices and services. Personal computers such as desktops and mobile computers like tablets and smartphones are commonly used on home networks to communicate with other devices. A network attached storage (NAS) device may be part of the network, for general storage or backup purposes. A print server can be used to share any directly connected printers with other computers on the network.

Smart speakers may be used on a network for streaming media. DLNA is a common protocol used for interoperability between networked media-centric devices in the home, allowing devices like stereo systems on the network to access the music library from a PC on the same network, for example. Using an additional Internet connection, TVs for instance may stream online video content, while video game consoles can use online multiplayer.

Traditionally, data-centric equipment such as computers and media players have been the primary tenants of a home network. However, due to the lowering cost of computing and the ubiquity of smartphone usage, many traditionally non-networked home equipment categories now include new variants capable of control or remote monitoring through an app on a smartphone. Newer startups and established home equipment manufacturers alike have begun to offer these products as part of a "Smart" or "Intelligent" or "Connected Home" portfolio. Examples of such may include "connected" light bulbs (see also Li-Fi), home security alarms^[3] and smoke detectors. These often run over the Internet so that they can be accessed remotely.

Individuals may opt to subscribe to managed cloud computing services that provide such services instead of maintaining similar facilities within their home network. In such situations, local services along with the devices maintaining them are replaced by those in an external data center and made accessible to the home-dweller's computing devices via a WAN Internet connection.

Network management

Apple devices aim to make networking as hidden and automatic as possible, utilizing a zero-configuration networking protocol called Bonjour embedded within their otherwise proprietary line of software and hardware products.^{[citation needed]}

Microsoft offers simple access control features built into their Windows operating system. Homegroup is a feature that allows shared disk access, shared printer access and shared scanner access among all computers and users (typically family members) in a home, in a similar fashion as in a small office workgroup, e.g., by means of distributed peer-to-peer networking (without a central server). Additionally, a home server may be added for increased functionality. The Windows HomeGroup feature was introduced with Microsoft Windows 7 in order to simplify file sharing in residences. All users (typically all family members), except guest accounts, may access any shared library on any computer that is connected to the home group. Passwords are not required from the family members during logon. Instead, secure file sharing is possible by means of a temporary password that is used when adding a computer to the HomeGroup.^[4]

References

^ Anan, Muhammad; Al-Fuqaha, Ala; Nasser, Nidal; Mu, Ting-Yu; Bustam, Husnain (2016). "Empowering networking research and experimentation through Software-Defined Networking". Journal of Network and Computer Applications. 70. doi:10.1016/j.jnca.2016.05.001.
^ “Discover and Learn,” WiFi Alliance, http://www.wi-fi.org/discover_and_learn.php Archived 2010-07-04 at the Wayback Machine (accessed June 30, 2010).
^ "Akamai, Plume join for wired, wireless security coverage". FierceWireless. Archived from the original on 2021-05-13. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
^ Greg Holden, Lawrence C. Miller, Home Networking Do-It-Yourself for Dummies, John Wiley and Sons, 2011.