Extending Home Networks – A Comparison of G.hn, HomePlug AV2 and Wi-Fi Mesh

Over the last decade or so, we have seen a rapid increase in the number of devices connecting to the home network. The popularity of IoT has meant that even devices that are not mobile require communication over the Internet, but, their placement might be far away from the primary router in the house. Given this situation, it is essential to find a reliable way to extend the reach of the home network. There have been many attempts to come up with a standardized way to do it, but consumers have been forced to use range extenders, powerline networking kits and the like to increase the reach of their home networks. Given the multitude of available options, what underlying technology should consumers look for? This article provides a comprehensive overview of the available options as well as a quantitative comparison in one particular residential scenario.