News

MoCA Certification Wave Guarantees Interoperability With Recently Ratified Standard (5/4/2006)

The Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA(TM)) has completed its first certification wave ensuring interoperability among the products using the MoCA standard. Actiontec, Entropic, Linksys, Mototech, Motorola, Panasonic, 2Wire and Westell all successfully passed and were awarded MoCA certification. The same eight companies participated in MoCA's first plugfest last November.

In addition, MoCA recently ratified and released its 'MoCA MAC/PHY v1.0 Specification,' for which certification verifies compliance.

"Whether it's broadband video or premium content delivered from a traditional video services provider, the challenge of distributing digital entertainment throughout the home has been a significant hurdle holding back the emergence of the digital home," said Michael Wolf, principal analyst of broadband for ABI Research. "MoCA technology and the members of MoCA have made a significant step forward in resolving this challenge by utilizing coax as a robust distribution medium for premium content, including multiple hi-def streams, throughout the home. Contributing to the momentum for MoCA is the fact it is being utilized by all major video operator platforms."

"MoCA is now the only wired multimedia home networking standard that has all of the key ingredients including an open specification, a valid RAND licensing environment, active certification waves, and interoperable products deploying in high volume," said Ladd Wardani, President of MoCA.

The certification wave is an official MoCA event where vendors submit products with MoCA interfaces to verify interoperability, functionality and performance according to a suite of certification tests chosen by the MoCA Certification Board. Representatives of the Certification Board conducted and monitored all testing.

Successful devices are awarded MoCA certification, which allows a vendor to use the MoCA logo and claim standard compliance on products for the certified interface. The Certification Board is now working with multiple independent labs, two of which were trained at, and assisted with, the certification wave. MoCA members will have the logistical ease of running through the certification test plan at the independent labs starting in 2Q06, with the Certification Board then reviewing results and awarding certification.

MoCA has also just ratified the MoCA MAC/PHY v1.0 standard, which includes a full specification in addition to the certification test plan and procedures. All members have full access to the specification and certification process, and can use them to independently develop and certify chips, technology and products.

"We are pleased that our MoCA Ethernet bridge passed the first certification wave," said Fujio Nakajima, CTO, Panasonic AVC Networks Company. "MoCA is one of our key approaches, as it is the only standard on coax that can be used by all operator segments including cable, satellite, telco and terrestrial broadcast, and is thus destined to become the defacto coax home networking standard for delivery of HDTV home entertainment products for use in Asian and U.S. markets."

"MoCA's performance and its unique ability to work on the coax without disruption to existing services from cable, telco, and satellite operators cement MoCA as the definitive method for coaxial cable entertainment home networking. As the leading supplier of home networking products, Linksys looks forward to serving the needs of operators and consumers with certified MoCA products," said Malachy Moynihan, VP/GM, home networking for Linksys.

"Motorola believes the mobility of digital video is an important experience that begins in the Connected Home," said Ray Sokola, CTO, Motorola Connected Home Solutions. "The MoCA standard is an important enabler of this experience, allowing us to bring robust home media networking into our world-class digital set-top products."

"Mototech is proud to have certified its Ethernet-to-MoCA bridge in the first certification wave, and to have shown the capability to rapidly provide OEM customers with MoCA-based products," said K.Y. Chou, President of Mototech. "We have focused on MoCA because it is the only complete home networking standard on coax, and the only one that works for all three operator segments and can penetrate retail, which is important for our customers who require robust market solutions for cable, satellite, telephony and retail."

"With the MoCA standardization efforts now complete, and interoperable products deploying in telco IPTV, we are delighted to jointly pass this significant milestone toward this shared vision," said David Appleman, Actiontec's VP of business development. "Our four-port broadband home router is one of the first products that passed MoCA's certification and interoperability test."

"MoCA is making great progress in ensuring interoperability for video and home entertainment networking, with its new certification process and published specification," said Pasquale Romano, VP and general manager of 2Wire's gateway business unit. "We are proud to be part of this first wave of MoCA certification."

"Our participation in the MoCA certification process demonstrates our commitment to delivering 'no new wires' coax home networking CPE to our service provider customers," said Gordon Reichard, Jr., VP of Marketing at Westell.

"Entropic is pleased to have certified its reference design using our MoCA compliant chipset and software, and to have seven other companies do the same in their end products," said Dr. Anton Monk, VP of Technology for Entropic Communications. "With extensive field trials and testing well behind us, and now plugfests, certification waves, an open specification and the only mass deployment of home networked triple play services, MoCA is quickly becoming the defacto standard for in-home digital entertainment distribution."

Motorola and Tellabs made a joint MoCA submission to the ITU that will ensure standardized interoperability in the network management of MoCA systems.

For each MoCA interface, each product was subjected to a three-day test period. MoCA anticipates periodic plugfests and certification waves on an ongoing basis, with vendors also able to run the certification test suite at third party labs at any time. This first certification wave was held at Verizon Labs in Waltham, Mass., in February. The next certification wave is scheduled to occur in April.

www.mocalliance.org