The HomeGrid Forum, the organisation promoting the use of the G.hn, a next-generation powerline networking standard, has pledged to put in place what it needs to begin device interoperability testing during the first half of the year.

It's a rather broad timeline, but many slip twixt cup and lip, and all that. Still, does it really take six months to set all this up, especially when G.hn has be ready for an even longer period?

The HGF has said in the past that G.hn-equipped products will be in the shops by the end of 2011, and a crucial step in ensure punters buy them rather than rival kit going out under the better-known HomePlug Alliance badge - the HPA is backing IEEE 1901, an alternative data-over-mains technology - is to make it clear that kit from one vendor will work with equipment from other vendors.

To that end, HGF executive Chano Gomez promised the selection and approval of the firms that will handle the interoperabilty tests, and the penning of the logo the organisation will use to show that gadgets have passed said tests.

Testing will be helped by plugfests, the first of which will take place before July, Gomez said. These are events at which device makers gather to see how good network neighbours their kit is. ®