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16-Jun-2010
by John Moulding
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MoCA trials expected in Europe this year
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Connected Home
The Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) expects European cable operators to start trialling the home networking standards technology this year, confident it is winning the argument that only its technology can deliver the reliability needed for high bandwidth in-home video distribution. A survey by IMS Research earlier this year found that over 55% of respondents in the UK and France had two or more coaxial outlets and over a quarter had three or more outlets. It seems this has also helped persuade platform operators that coax is a viable home networking medium in some European markets.
In Europe, MoCA is likely to be introduced as the foundation for reliable universal Local Area Networks where high bandwidth video services like multiroom HD and multiroom HD DVR can be introduced later. In the US, these advanced video services have provided the immediate requirement for operators like DTH provider DIRECTV and cable operator Cox Communications to pursue the MoCA route.
This week, the Multimedia over Coax Alliance announced the ratification of its MoCA 2.0 specification, which is backwards compatible with previous versions. This gives another important boost to reliability by significantly increasing net throughput (MAC) rates from 175 Mbps with MoCA 1.1 to a baseline mode of 400 Mbps. There is also an enhanced mode offering 800 Mbps with version 2.0. The physical layer (PHY) rates are 700 Mbps and 1.4 Gbps respectively.
The packet error rate (PER) has also been improved to one packet error in 100 million. The PER mode is programmable on a per flow basis and can be assigned depending on the necessity of content. ‘On time’ delivery is assured with an average latency of less than 3.5ms across all received packets and traffic profiles, MoCA says. The new specification also includes an expanded operating frequency range of 500 MHz to 1650 MHz to make the technology more appealing to satellite operators.
According to Rob Gelphman, Chair of the Marketing Work Group for MoCA, the reliability of the standard is driving its uptake – which so far is limited to North America (Verizon also uses the technology for its triple-play home networking). He believes that as European platform operators start introducing higher bandwidth video home networking, coinciding with more HDTV viewing, some will turn their attention from wireless or Powerline to MoCA, although no single solution is likely to dominate in Europe.
With video a classic high bandwidth and low latency application, any interference on a home network is going to seriously degrade the user experience and services like HDTV and later 3DTV will only emphasise the need for robust in-home solutions. Gelphman comments: “For wireless, mobility is a strong value proposition and Powerline provides ubiquity, with the ability to put devices anywhere you want them. That is getting more and more important.
“But when it comes to video, reliability is the most important factor. Pay TV operators provide home entertainment and if the video doesn’t work they get customer calls and that erodes their profit margins. It is not that they don’t value portability or ubiquity for home networking – it is just that they value reliability more. And in Europe gross margins for Pay TV operators are even tighter than in the US so customer complaints can have even more impact on service economics.”
Gelphman says the previous resistance to MoCA in Europe was due to two reasons: platform operators were determined to pursue wireless or Powerline to achieve the portability or ubiquity benefits these offer, and there was a belief that European homes did not contain sufficient coax outlets to make MoCA viable. The IMS Research survey helped demonstrate the addressable coax market in Europe.
MoCA believes the high bandwidth offered for home networking with the latest specification enables Pay TV operators to future-proof their homes. The organisation is now preparing for certification testing of MoCA 2.0, which is expected to begin in 2011.
About the author
John Moulding joined Videonet as editor at the start of 2010, having spent over 10 years writing about digital TV and the various technologies that have simultaneously disrupted and enriched the television business. With Videonet he is focused on the unstoppable march towards multiplatform, connected and personalized television. John was editor of Cable & Satellite International (now CSI) for six years before helping launch New Video Technology, and helped develop the IPTV World Series conference programmes from 2006-07. At home, he takes a Sky triple-play bundle, watches around one-third of content time-shifted, enjoys BBC iPlayer on television through the Wii, and eagerly awaits the arrival of YouTube on his own TV (the killer TV application for late on a Friday night). He is still loyal to channels - but can also remember when TV shut down after lunch.
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