The connected home and networked home entertainment are definitely hot topics at this year's CES in Las Vegas, but which of the new networking technology standards will make these things possible? How can you know if this year's products will connect to next year's networks? The next time you shop for electronics, look for the terms IPv6, UPnP, 802.11g, and WiMedia on the box. If you don't see any of these standards listed on the package, think twice before reaching for your wallet. You may be looking at an example of planned obsolescence.

IPv6 will revolutionize the Internet, and the revolution has already begun.

IPv6: the big Internet upgrade
If you want to start familiarizing yourself with the Internet of tomorrow, you'd be well advised to get to know the term IPv6. IPv6 will revolutionize the Internet, and the revolution has already begun. Japan and South Korea have mandated the IPv6 standard by 2005. The U.S. Department of Defense has declared that it will transition to IPv6 beginning this year. Sony has announced that by 2005, all of its products will be IPv6 enabled. And Nokia demonstrated the first dual IPv4/IPv6-enabled CDMA handset a few weeks ago. IPv4, the mother of all networking protocols, the postal system of the Internet, will fade into oblivion by the end of the decade, and IPv6 will take its place. The advantages to IPv6 are manifold, but the main motivations for its adoption are a huge increase in the number of available IP addresses, improved mobility, and better security.

In 2004, expect to see an increasing number of devices with Universal Plug and Play support.

UPnP: the computer is the network
Wouldn't it be nice if cameras, computers, PDAs, MP3 players, TVs, and printers could all automatically recognize each other and configure themselves to join your home network? You wouldn't need to install printer drivers on your computer, and you could print directly from your PDA, your camera, or even your TV. Universal Plug and Play, or UPnP, is a service-discovery protocol designed to accomplish all this and more. In 2004, expect to see an increasing number of devices with UPnP support. A new version, UPnP 2.0, is being developed that will include native IPv6 support, but it will lack backward compatibility with UPnP 1.0. On Friday, experts are gathering here in Las Vegas to discuss network interoperability and the role that UPnP will play in the self-configuring devices of tomorrow.

Ultra Wide Band: full-spectrum wireless
Wi-Fi took home networking by storm in 2003, and expect its popularity to grow in 2004. But 2004 will also usher in a new wireless technology that is already beginning to steal Wi-Fi's thunder. Ultra Wide Band, or UWB, operates at low power and is immune to the interference problems of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. With theoretical speeds approaching 500Mbps, UWB promises to deliver the bandwidth-intensive multimedia applications of the connected home. Expect to see UWB technology in flat-panel monitors and entertainment centers by year's end. Unfortunately, the IEEE has failed to ratify its standard for the technology, 802.15.3a, leaving the door open for companies to introduce incompatible standards. The WiMedia Alliance and Motorola are talking up their competing versions of the technology here in Las Vegas.

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