News

Entropic Communications and Westell Technologies Partner on Broadband Gateway for Networking of Digital Entertainment in the Home (16/11/2005)

Entropic Communications, Inc., and Westell Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:WSTL), are collaborating on home networking for digital entertainment. Specifically, Westell is using Entropic's c.LINK 270 chipset for its new line of home networking routers for IPTV and video delivery, called UltraLine II(TM).

"We are paving the way for the next wave of broadband service delivery which centers around video throughout the home, with measurable benefits to the service provider and the consumer," said Gordon Reichard, Jr., vice president of marketing at Westell.

The UltraLine II is a broadband gateway that provides for delivery of full-motion video using built-in QoS, over a variety of LAN and WAN access delivery systems including Ethernet for FTTP, VDSL2, and Bonded ADSL2+. To simplify installation and eliminate the need for new wiring, a single connection links the UltraLine II to the customer's existing in-home coaxial cabling, providing 100 Mbps of network throughput around the home entertainment LAN, in addition to providing a WAN access link on the same coax at a different frequency.

Multi-room video sharing is now completely and immediately available without the need for additional cabling or installation expenses associated with set up or truck rolls, providing benefits to both the service provider and the customer.

Entropic's c.LINK-270 chipset can be used in a variety of consumer electronics such as set-top boxes and modems, broadband gateways and routers, DVR/PVRs and digital TVs. It enables seamless networking over the existing coaxial cable infrastructure at speeds as high as 270Mbps, making coax the ideal medium for networking high-bandwidth applications such as video. Coaxial cable is available in more than 110 million homes in the U.S.

The UltraLine II is compliant with the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA(TM)) standard body of which Westell and Entropic are members. MoCA's mission is to promote and standardize the networking of consumer entertainment devices over existing coax cabling. Other members of the non-profit consortium include Linksys/Cisco Systems, Comcast, Cox, EchoStar, Motorola, Panasonic (Matsushita Electric), RadioShack Corporation, Toshiba and Verizon.

www.westell.com