Just a couple of years ago, the home gateway was only a simple modem capable of providing broadband connectivity to one or two personal computers and was mainly used for surfing the Internet.

Today there are evident advances in the functionalities of the gateway, which have been primarily driven by rapidly evolving technology and the diffusion of broadband services.

Home gateways that support triple-play applications (data, voice, and video) are becoming accessible to a wider market. Moreover, thanks to the new opportunities offered by remote management, the home gateway becomes very attractive to operators, since such devices will have a longer field life than the previous ones.

On top of telecom-driven services, the home gateway can be the enabler of new services, including health-care monitoring, home appliance management, and remote learning.

This session will explore the application of broadband technologies in the areas of health care, demotics, and digital certification.

Corrado Rocca Senior Vice President, Product Marketing and Development - Broadband Access Products Pirelli Broadband Solutions S.p.A.

Mr. Rocca is responsible for product marketing and management and all development projects for access gateways, multimedia devices, and element management systems. He also represents Pirelli in the broadband access community, working with organizations such as Home Gateway Initiative, the DSL Forum, and Plug Fest competitions as well as chairing and speaking at industry events such as Broadband World Forum Europe and VON conferences. An 11-year veteran of the Pirelli Group, Mr. Rocca has held several senior-level R&D positions in Pirelli Submarine Telecom Systems. In 2003, he was director of R&D, responsible for DWDM terminal equipment, underwater devices, power feeding equipment, and management software, and director of manufacturing, responsible for underwater products.

Bob Bissell Principal Consultant, Customer Environment BT

Mr. Bissell is responsible for the customer environment architecture and strategy in BT's Group CTO. Over the past 10 years, he has worked in BT Retail and Wholesale in customer environment-focused roles. He was responsible for producing the business case, specifying and selecting BT's Remote Management System for Home Gateways in 2003. Mr. Bissell has worked on broadband digital TV solutions since 1992 and was the technical delivery manager for BT's interactive TV technical trial that commenced in March 1993.

Alfonso Fuggetta Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director CEFRIEL Full Professor Politecnico di Milano

Mr. Fuggetta has been in his current role at CEFRIEL—the ICT Center of excellence for research, innovation, and education established in 1988 by Politecnico di Milano the Regional Council of Lombardy and 16 leading ICT companies operating in Italy—since 2003. Mr. Fuggetta is also visiting professor at the University of California, Irvine since 1998 and faculty associate of the Institute for Software Research of the same university since 2002.

Paolo Pastorino Chief Technology Officer Home Gateway Initiative

Mr. Pastorino is on leave from Telecom Italia to cover the role of chief technology officer and chief business officer of the Home Gateway Initiative. For his current role, he relies on his experience, ranging from the design of optoelectronic devices to the design of broadband access network architectures and advanced residential/SOHO broadband networking and service solutions. He has managed several national and international projects in the broadband home networking domain and has written papers about the broadband home and speaker to several international conferences.