Most of the houses built today are designed with a wiring system that fulfill present necessities such as electric power (obvious), telephone service, television (CATV), and in some cases, an alarm system. The electric power wiring is properly standardized and do not represent a problem. The telephone wiring system was designed for the specified bandwidth of the telephone service 50-60 years ago (4 KHz). Known as Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS), this wiring specifications are still adequate for voice service, but the with boom of digital communication services available today via the phone line, this wiring system imposes severe restrictions to the performance of the new technologies.
By the same token, lighting systems, electronic equipment available, the advance of digital television, intelligent controls, etc., indicateds the need for a different approach for the wiring of the house of the future. A new concept of electronic wiring of the house has taken place, and it is up to the architects and builders to implement and educate the homeowner of the need to be ready for the near future.
To be properly wired for the future, a house needs an electronic wiring network that support digital audio, video, voice, data and control systems, while still being able to handle existing products and technologies. There exist several recommendations as to how the house needs to be wired for the future, hence the term "Futureproofing". The Electronic Industries Association (EIA) has developed and published a the CEBus standard EIA-600 See CEBus Description, which specifies how all parts of a home network are to be built and installed. The physical layer and media specification indicates the requirements for a home network wiring compliant with the standard. The general consensus is the if a house wiring is CEBus compliant, then it will support any of the proposed home automation technologies such as X-10 See X-10 Technology overview and Echelon's LonWorks See LonWorks Technology Overview and Architecture