Not everyone has jumped on the seemingly irresistible G.hn home network movement. HomePlug (Powerline) and MoCA (the coax crowd) adherents question the need for a new home network standard when, they say, between them they have the best for Powerline and coax.
To that end, the two main chipmakers for those standards, Entropic (MoCA) and Intellon (HomePlug) last week announced they are working together “to accelerate the availability of home networking solutions combining coaxial cable and Powerline communications.”
Their statement certainly does not mean they are committed to G.hn because they have fought G.hn vigorously, saying, mainly, that G.hn does not allow compatibility and interoperability with the large installed base of legacy gear that uses their technologies.
It could mean the two are developing a chipset, or better yet but less likely, a single chip that would include both their technologies. Either would allow service providers to build and install one box that could work over either coax or Powerline. It would also provide an attractive alternative to G.hn, which is a long way from chip testing, much less deployment.
However, it’s very unlikely that the joint development will produce a single technology that functions over both electrical and coax wires, which is the goal of the G.hn camp.
We asked MoCA’s leading chipmaker Entropic whether there’s any truth to our assumption that the joint announcement it made with HomePlug chipmaker Intellon would lead to development of a common chipset that supported both MoCA and HomePlug. An Entropic spokesperson replied:
“The assumption that we are jointly developing a chip is wrong.
“At this time, the collaboration is to jointly promote how existing technologies work and co-exist under the same roof. For example, if there is a home using MoCA technologies for networking, which relies on a coax connection, but one room doesn’t have a coax port, a HomePlug can be used to bridge that gap seamlessly and without interference. The companies intend to collaborate on technology roadmaps and jointly promote and demonstrate their respective technologies.
“Some key benefits of the collaboration are:
“1. Because MoCA and HomePlug can already co-exist, technology fragmentation introduced by new standards can be avoided.
“2. It provides for ubiquitous home coverage in areas of the home where coax is not present.
“3. MoCA and HomePlug support both data and media for high-performance networking.
“4. The solutions can be deployed today anywhere in the world.
“5. It supports an already existing and large installed base.”
However, it appears to us at Rider Research that MoCA-to-HomePlug adapter boxes and co-existence aren’t enough.
Without an integrated MoCA/HomePlug chipset, G.hn – with its appeal of compatibility and interoperability in one box over any of the home’s three wires, it seems to us, has the potential to overwhelm the (so far, at least) incompatible MoCA and HomePlug technologies. The major telcos may have realized that several years ago when the ITU-T, the telcos’ standards development body, began overseeing G.hn’s development.
HomePlug spokesman David Stowe told us that the HomePlug Alliance agrees with Entropic’s statements, but not our conclusion. He said G.hn proposes a co-existence scheme that he doesn’t think will give it the power to overwhelm either MOCA or HomePlug.
One thing is clear, he said, “Home networks are being pushed to the forefront by high bandwidth consumer applications (multiple streams of HD TV) and the smart grid. All of the players, utilities, service providers, and consumers will demand interoperability with a forward migration path and backward compatibility. It is also clear that Powerline will play the role of the backbone for the home network due to the fact that it has an installed cable plant with access points in all areas of the home.
“Adding Ethernet, Wi-Fi or MOCA devices to a Powerline network is as simple as plugging in a coax or CAT5 connector into a HomePlug adaptor plugged into the wall. There is no set up or configuration.
“G.hn products will ship (not sample) in mid-2011. At that time, HomePlug will be shipping HomePlug AV2 which has a 4X performance increase over the current HomePlug AV and over G.hn. It’ll be fully interoperable with the HomePlug AV version and IEEE 1901. ‘HomePlug will account for about 80% of the Powerline market at that time,” he said.
Stowe said that G.hn will launch with an inferior technology that does not interoperate with anything. And he asks, “How is that a formula for success?”
Similarly, MOCA will be well into shipping its next version, MOCA 2, he said, and will have market share numbers on coax comparable to HomePlug on Powerline. [Coppergate’s HPNA competes with MoCA in the coax home network market.]
“What happens to the 120 million or so customers who have MOCA and/or HomePlug products installed at that point in time?” Stowe asks, then answers, “Simply ignoring them, as the promoters of G.hn have been doing, won’t make them go away.”
Note: IEEE 1901 is a working group that’s attempting to make two of the three Powerline standards, HomePlug and Panasonic’s HDPLC, capable of operating simultaneously on the same wires.
This is part of a longer story from The Online Reporter from Rider Research