Multi-service in-home network with an open interface

A gateway for providing communications internal to a premises, and providing access to multiple external communication networks, the gateway comprising:

• an internal interface for coupling to and compatible with an internal communication media within the premises;
• a plurality of external network interfaces, each external network interface providing a digital communication connection for a different type of wide area network link, at least one of the external network interfaces providing a broadband digital communication connection for a respective wide area network link;
• a router coupled between the internal interface and the external interfaces for selectively routing digital information to and from the interfaces;
• a program controlled central processing unit for controlling the routing of digital information to and from the interfaces through the router, to enable digital communication between devices coupled to the internal communication media and to enable selective communications of the devices via the external network interfaces;
• and
• a software program executable by the central processing unit to perform the routing control, said software program being compatible with a common application program interface implemented by interfaces for providing the coupling of the devices to the internal communication media.

A program product for use in a system for providing data communications within a premises and data communications access to a plurality of wide area network links, wherein a gateway of the system is coupled between the wide area network links and a data communication media within the premises for controlling the data communications within the premises and the data communications access to the wide area network links, and the programming for the gateway implements the communications control in a manner compatible with a predetermined application program interface,

• the program product comprising:
• one or more machine readable media;
• executable code on the one or more machine readable media, the executable code comprising:
• programming for each of a plurality of device specific interfaces, for interaction with the gateway to enable a device connected to each device specific interface to communicate through the system, the programming for each of the device specific interfaces implementing the predetermined application program interface for interaction with device specific higher level functions of a respective interfacing to a respective one of a plurality of different types of devices.

A program product for use in a system for providing data communications within a premises and data communications access to a plurality of wide area network links, wherein the system comprises a plurality of device specific interfaces adapted for coupling different types of devices for communication via a communications medium within the premises, and the device specific interfaces for different types of devices implement a common application program interface for interaction with device specific higher level functions,

• the program product comprising:
• a machine readable medium;
• executable code on the machine readable medium, the executable code comprising programming for a central processing unit of a gateway of the system coupled between the wide area network links and the communications medium within the premises,
• wherein the programming for the central processing unit is for controlling data communications within the premises and data communications access to the wide area network links, and the programming implements the control in a manner compatible with the common application program interface.