News

MoCA Milestone Achievements Build Momentum for Video over Coax in Home Networks (10/2/2006)

The Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA(tm)) continues to execute according to its charter with a series of recent and upcoming milestones and events. MoCA promotes the adoption and proliferation of video and digital entertainment distribution in the home over existing coaxial cable, and will be demonstrating member products in their booth.

The alliance, led by some of the biggest names in broadband and entertainment services and products, has recently welcomed many new members and completed its first interoperability plugfest. Large-scale field trials in 250 homes across the U.S. were completed in the first half of 2005.

Imminent in its charter is certification of member products and release of the final specification, completing the MoCA standard in 1Q06. Chip companies will then be able to develop and provide ICs to product manufacturers who can certify their products, all in a multi-vendor license-friendly ecosystem of a proven solution being demanded by service providers.

The passing of each milestone, in accordance with the alliance's planned process for ensuring compliance and interoperability among all products incorporating MoCA technology, generates continued momentum. MoCA is the first home networking standardization alliance to successfully conduct field trials and a plugfest of products supporting whole-house, multiple high-definition (HD) and standard-definition (SD) video consistent with all of the service providers requirements.

The impending certification wave and final specification release places the alliance securely on track to be the first such organization to have a completed standard that is field proven and supported with multi-vendor qualification.

At their recent plugfest, eight member companies' products simultaneously interoperated in a network supporting 60Mbps of 3 HDTV streams, 30Mbps of 8 SDTV streams, networked gaming and data, at levels consistent with the MoCA standard.

Field trials in homes around the country conducted earlier in the year, revealed consistent net throughput of more than 100 Mbps in greater than 97 percent of all coax outlets. Service providers and network operators for home networking of video and digital entertainment demand a percentage "in the high 90's" for household outlet coverage in order to maximize customer experience and minimize truck rolls and service calls. MoCA is the only technology to date to report such successful results in a large-scale field trial.

MoCA certified products work in peaceful coexistence with all other consumer devices in the home, as well as simultaneous services from cable, satellite and telephony operators, additional and proven key elements of MoCA that are required by industry.

Market research firms such as iSuppli and Parks Associates validate MoCA's position that homes will have heterogeneous networks, utilizing multiple home mediums as well as multiple services from cable, satellite and telephony operators. This makes interoperability and uninterrupted delivery with multiple services and technologies imperative.

"Interoperability with cable, satellite and telco services and their technologies, as well as retail consumer electronics devices and Internet-based services, is paramount for the home network, since the homes of the future will use all of these services, and sometimes combinations of them," said Ladd Wardani, President of MoCA.

"MoCA is the only standardization alliance providing a solution on coax that meets the stringent video quality requirements and ensures interoperability for all the cable, satellite, telco and retail-based service providers, and the more than 100 million North American homes currently getting their services, " Ladd included.

"MoCA certified products will enjoy the technology integration, price reduction, consumer electronic devices integration, retail presence, service provider adoption, and consumer adoption that comes from the high volume deployment enabled by supporting all four of these service provider segments."

Statistics from the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) show coaxial cabling in more than 90 percent of all television homes in the U.S.

www.mocalliance.org