The Home Gateway Initiative (HGI) today announced its plan to complete its current work by mid-2016 and bring the organisation to a close.

In order to achieve this, HGI will accelerate and finish the important work still underway. Following the end of the organisation, the requirements documents created by HGI will remain available to the industry.

HGI's Chairman Luca Giacomello said a number of factors have contributed to the decision, such as current and emerging trends within the industry.

"The advent of new technologies like programmable networks and virtualisation, the growing importance of gateway software architectures which need to span multiple domains, the fragmentation of the standardisation landscape, as well as the increasing importance of open source projects, have all played a part in our deliberations," he said. "Overall, we decided the controlled closure of HGI following the accelerated completion of its current work was the most sensible option."

HGI was established in 2004 by leading European Service Providers with the goal of specifying the Home Gateways then needed to support broadband access and triple play services. Since then, HGI's work has grown to encompass a wide range of topics in home broadband networks, including energy efficiency, Home Gateway software modularity, Smart Home services, quality of service and Home Gateway testing.

While HGI is led by Service Providers, manufacturers of gateways, chips and software have always played a vital role. Over the last ten years, the organisation has provided a unique environment for Service Providers to explain their business needs and for manufacturers to provide feedback, as well as to gain early information about the new features needed. HGI's requirements documents have provided key guidelines for the industry with the aim of enabling an interoperable Smart Home.

"With the publication of these documents, HGI will have provided the broadband industry with a very significant set of specifications which we hope will remain useful for years to come," continued Giacomello. "This is the appropriate time to finish with maximum impact."

The closure plan focuses on the completion of HGI's current work programme, which covers a number of important industry topics.

"HGI's requirements documents, along with the test plans and use-case descriptions have enabled companies to better understand and address the market," said Duncan Bees, HGI's Chief Technology and Business Officer. "Current work in-progress - including work on device abstraction and the Smart Home architecture, gateway virtualisation and hybrid access, and a new Home Gateway requirements specification - will be completed within a year's time."