Setting a basis for a common industry approach to troubleshooting

23 April 2013 HGI, the leading global organisation for setting requirements for the digital home, has published a requirements document that sets out common industry approach to troubleshooting.

Document HGI -RW016 entitled Home Gateway and Home Network Diagnostics Module Requirements specifies both an overall diagnostics architecture as well as a set of diaqnostic functions in the Home Gateway (HG) that support a flexible troubleshooting architecture.

The document specifies connection- and service-related counters and statistics that need to be tracked for a wide variety of possible problems. By enabling more responsive and effective self-care options for customers, Broadband Service Providers (BSP) will reduce customer support costs and increase customer satisfaction. Also, when BSP helpdesks interact with customers, the implementation of HGI-RD016 will ensure the most effective and speedy problem resolution.

HGI enables reduced time-to-market for its manufacturers by determining consensus requirements at an industry level. Manufacturers of HG, software, and silicon solutions will strongly benefit by implementation of the HGI diagnostic requirements, and will be able to demonstrate compliance to these requirements in HGI test programmes.

“Diagnosing problems has become more challenging in today’s homes as a wide and growing variety of digital devices including PCs, laptops, HD TVs, tablets, and game consoles proliferate. Connection speeds range from 1Mb/s to more than 100Mb/s and smartphones have become pervasive. Many users expect their services to just work, and have no awareness of, or interest in, the complexity of the connected home. Their expectations are broadly the same for a managed service delivered by their Service Provider, an over-the-top service and a smartphone app, and this has placed additional burdens on BSP helpdesks” said Duncan Bees, Chief Technology and Business Officer for HGI.

 “A typical user just wants the service back immediately when something goes wrong and will often call their service provider for help, regardless of whether the problem is actually anything to do with them. The new HGi Diagnostics document will enable better customer self-care tools and will assist the BSPs in this position to improve resolution for end-customers,” added Bees.

HGI-RD016 may be downloaded here - http://www.homegatewayinitiative.org/publis/HGI-RD016_HG-Home-Network-Diag-Modul-Req.pdf. For an introduction to HGI’s approach in developing the diagnostics technical requirements please visit here - http://www.homegatewayinitiative.org/news/HGI_Spotlights_home.asp - for a full HGI Spotlight Paper covering the topic, or email [email protected].