HomeRF

HomeRF was a standard for a wireless local area network (RLAN). HomeRF was developed as an alternative for the IEEE 802.11 WiFi standard. The main driver was the perceived adequate support in the draft specifications of IEEE 802.11 for isochronous services, i.e. voice communication.

HomeRF was based on Frequency Hopping and supported a data rate of 1.6 Mbit/s. A second generation of the HomeRF standard should support 6-10 Mbit/s.

Despite the backing of major players, like Intel and Proxim, HomeRF never became a success. Among the reasons for this was the success of WiFi and in particular the development of IEEE 802.11b. The HomeRF consortium had assumed that 802.11b products would always be more costly than HomeRF products, but the forces of market power proved otherwise.

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