Battle Of The Networking Stars, Part Two: HomePlug AV Vs. MoCA

So engineers at some of the world's leading technology companies are backing two new ways to build a digital home infrastructure using backbones already found in nearly every home, new or old: electrical wiring and coax cables. Respectively, these new digital home wiring technologies are named HomePlug AV and MoCA, and they are backed by separate standards bodies formed to develop and promote them: the HomePlug Powerline Alliance (www.homeplug.org) and the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (www.mocalliance.org).

Whereas Ethernet is a well-established technology, HomePlug AV and MoCA are not time-tested by integrators. Both are still undergoing development and testing. While some integrators are proclaiming a wait-and-see attitude toward both HomePlug AV and MoCA, others are bullish on at least one of these new technologies.

HOMEPLUG AV
HomePlug is based on the premise that electrical wiring is ubiquitous in all homes. The technology uses this wiring as a backbone to distribute data around the house. "Nobody wants to give up the promise of the fully connected home," says Andreas Melder, senior vice president of strategic business development at Intellon, one of the founding companies of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance. At the same time, Melder says, in existing homes, "Nobody wants to fish new wire."

Moreover, he adds, the latest version of the technology is specifically aimed at distributing data that requires broadband speeds and guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS), such as high-definition video.

The first HomePlug standard, HomePlug 1.0, was ratified in 2001 and offered a theoretical data rate of up to 14 Mbps. This was followed in 2004 by HomePlug 1.0 with Turbo, which boosted the maximum theoretical data rate to 85 Mbps. Now, the next generation of the technology, HomePlug AV, promises a theoretical data rate of up to 200 Mbps.

The HomePlug Powerline Alliance ratified the final specification for the HomePlug AV standard and announced it at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco in August. The first HomePlug AV-enabled products, which will be adapters, are expected to hit during the first quarter of 2006. By the end of next year, Melder says, HomePlug AV networking technology will be embedded in consumer-electronics products such as flat-panel TVs, stereo gear, home theater equipment and TV set-top boxes. He predicts HomePlug AV will be in "anything that can benefit from being connected to a broadband network. ... We are an enabling technology [that] will only strengthen the case for the systems integrator." HomePlug AV is a robust, easy-to-use technology upon which integrators can base their installations, Melder adds.

"The powerline technology will enable more business for CEDIA [installers] than ever before," says Pete Griffin, director of corporate technology at Radio Shack in Fort Worth, Texas. HomePlug is a transformational technology and a gold mine for installers, Griffin says, because it takes what has been a stupid wire and makes it intelligent.

It is also likely the most ubiquitous wire in the home. According to Griffin, a typical home has 48 powerline outlets and three or four coax outlets. Radio Shack, which is a board member of both the HomePlug Powerline Alliance and MoCA, will have products based on both standards in its stores next year, in the flavor of Radio Shack brands and third-party products, Griffin says.

Matt Theall, president of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance and the powerline initiative manager at Intel's Technology Group, says HomePlug has already gained wide support from companies in a variety of consumer industries, including home automation companies and utilities. Besides HomePlug AV, the HomePlug Powerline Alliance is still developing two other technologies— HomePlug Command and Control and HomePlug BPL— aimed, respectively, at low-speed home automation data networking and delivery of broadband over powerlines from utilities to homes. There were about 200 attendees at the HomePlug Powerline Alliance's first Technology Conference in San Francisco in September, even though the Alliance expected only 100, Theall says. "We see this as validation of the level of interest in HomePlug in the industry," he says. The HomePlug Powerline Alliance has 50 member companies, and nine companies form the Alliance's board of directors: Comcast, EarthLink, Intel, GE, Linksys (which is a division of Cisco Systems), Motorola, Radio Shack, Sharp and Sony.

During the past five years, Theall says, there have been millions of HomePlug 1.0 or 1.0 with Turbo units sold. "It's proven that it works and it works well," he says.

Today, installing a HomePlug network in a home is as simple as plugging a HomePlug adapter into a power outlet and connecting that adapter to a broadband modem or an existing network router. There are HomePlug-enabled devices, such as set-top boxes from Echostar (Dish Network), home monitoring cameras from WiLife and GigaFast, a digital media adapter from Digital 5 and speakers from Radio Shack. Non-HomePlug-enabled products can be connected to the HomePlug network using adapters.

Melder and Griffin concede that there is "noise" in electrical wiring that makes it challenging to transmit data and maintain QoS. But HomePlug AV contains sophisticated noise handling technology that allows it to punch through the noise, they say. Even with old wiring, they add, the HomePlug Powerline Alliance sees no degradation in the performance of HomePlug AV. Also noteworthy, Melder says, is that HomePlug AV's algorithm—the basis for the technology—works just as well on twisted pair telephone wiring and coax. It offers an "any-wire solution," he explains, envisioning the back of a set-top box that features a switch letting the user choose between power grid or coax networking. Intellon, which makes "silicon" or chips that enable HomePlug networking in devices, has announced this hybrid concept and it has gained attention, Melder says. Such set-top boxes are expected to ship next year.

HomePlug AV technology run over coax yields roughly the same performance as MoCA technology, Theall says. In test scenarios, the HomePlug Powerline Alliance found HomePlug AV yielded a net throughput of at least 50 to 55 Mbps with 80 percent of powerline outlets. When tested with coax cables, HomePlug AV yielded double that net throughput, or about 110 Mbps, Theall says. "Because HomePlug AV is designed to perform well in a harsh environment, when run over coax it yields even better performance," he says. MoCA
For an integrator, setting up a MoCA network in a home is much the same as setting up a HomePlug network, including a router, adapters and other products. First introduced last year at CES, MoCA has been undergoing development and testing ever since. But a field test was completed recently and now MoCA is transitioning from technical work to growing the Alliance, says Eric Buffkin, chairman of the MoCA marketing working group. Since it was formed by Comcast, EchoStar, Entropic Communications, Linksys , Motorola, Panasonic, Radio Shack and Toshiba, the Alliance has invited more than 100 companies to join. In August, Cox and Verizon added their names to the board of directors.

MoCA technology is primarily geared toward distributing multiple streams of high-definition video from one room to another. It also provides sufficient bandwidth to accommodate remote control of the video streams, such as with a PVR, as well as telephony service and computer data networking on the same coax cable. In the recently completed field test, Buffkin says, MoCA technology was found to have a net throughput of more than 100 Mbps in 95 percent of the homes tested. In 100 percent of the homes, the net throughput was at least 80 Mbps, Buffkin says. Experts say that one high-definition video stream to a TV set requires bandwidth of between 10 and 18 Mbps.

Where a performance problem was found with a MoCA connection, Buffkin says the solution typically was as simple as installing a new splitter or connecting the cable directly to the outlet. Therefore, he says, for integrators who may not be licensed electricians, MoCA should be an easier technology to implement than HomePlug AV.

Buffkin predicts that the first wave of MoCA products will be rolled out by cable TV and satellite TV service providers as well as broadband service providers. This will follow certifications of the first products by the Alliance, scheduled to begin last month. He predicts there will be MoCA-enabled consumer-electronics products available to consumers at retail early in 2006. "As the products roll out, I fully expect to see the biggest opportunity for the integrator [will be] to tie in the audio-video equipment to the MoCA network that the service provider will provision," Buffkin says.

INTEGRATORS CHIME IN
Among integrators, opinions about HomePlug AV and MoCA are mixed.

It will be tough for either to compete against Ethernet, says Gordon van Zuiden, president of cyberManor, an integrator based in Los Gatos, Calif. Electronic equipment installed by integrators typically contain fewer coax jacks than Ethernet jacks on their rear panels, van Zuiden says. Plus, he notes, coax cable is thick and stiff and, therefore, hard to bend. He also questions the ability of HomePlug AV to overcome the problem of noise on the electrical wiring.

Meanwhile, William Maronet, president of ETC, an integrator in West Palm Beach, Fla., says he is excited about MoCA. "There's a lot of bandwidth in coax," Maronet says, adding that one coax line can carry 100 video streams simultaneously.

So if a customer wanted 100 set-top boxes and 100 TVs in a room, to watch 100 channels at the same time, he could provide that solution with MoCA. "Everybody is trying to get one single HDTV picture across a Cat5, and yet coax has huge potential," Maronet says. He says he does not know enough about HomePlug AV to comment on it, but plans to attend the 2006 CES in January to find out which companies are buying into these technologies.

Speaking more generally about innovations like HomePlug AV and MoCA, Thomas Callahan, president of Sawyers Control Systems, an integrator in Frenchtown, N.J., says he prefers to see a technology stay around a while before he adopts it. Widely adopted technologies such as the DVI cable were quickly replaced by new technologies such as HDMI, he notes. "The greatest mousetrap isn't necessarily the product to install," Callahan says.

Right now, whether HomePlug AV or MoCA is the better mousetrap remains to be determined. After they enter the marketplace, one may quash the other or they may coexist.

Yet whatever the outcome, the experts say, there are two certainties. With either HomePlug AV or MoCA installed, "legacy" outlets will form a wired network backbone for the fully digital home, and integrators will spend less time pulling Cat5 and more time doing the custom work that only integrators can do.