At CES today Entropic (Nasdaq:ENTR) a provider of semiconductor solutions for the connected home, today announced three pioneering MoCA(R) (Multimedia over Coax Alliance)-based reference designs to increase the connectivity options within the home.
The growth of tablets and other wireless and connected devices in the home has created a need for additional connectivity options to ensure a reliable whole-home backbone network. In fact, according to Infonetics Research's June 2012 Home Networking Device report, "MoCA-embedded set-top boxes, FTTB optical network terminals, coax-Ethernet adapters and Wi-Fi broadband routers are driving growth in the home networking device market. Infonetics expects a cumulative $43 billion to be spent on home networking devices over the five years from 2012 to 2016 to meet service provider home networking needs.
On display from January 8-11 at CES 2013, in its Meeting Suite at the Wynn Las Vegas, Nevada, Entropic will showcase three new MoCA-based reference design solutions leveraging its MoCA silicon and software:
—MoCA 2.0 Multi-band Adapter (MBA): Entropic unveils the first MoCA 2.0 MBA, which offers support for all North American operator networks spanning telco, cable and satellite deployments. By utilizing Entropic's MoCA 2.0 multi-band technology, Entropic empowers consumers to take advantage of their existing whole-home coaxial network to bring reliable connectivity to broadband enabled CE devices such as Smart TVs, over-the-top set-top boxes, game consoles and Blu-ray players, while delivering up to 400Mbps of net throughput. Consumers can either create a new MoCA network or add to an existing MoCA network that's already been installed by their Pay-TV operator.
At its CES Meeting Suite, Entropic is interactively demonstrating a single MBA adapter that connects to all North American Pay-TV MoCA bands on the fly.
—Second Generation MoCA 2.0-to-WiFi Adapter: Entropic solves the challenge of ensuring strong WiFi coverage throughout the home by introducing its second generation MoCA-to-WiFi Adapter. The enhanced design addresses whole-home data coverage using MoCA as the backbone and branching off using WiFi to mobile devices. It combines Entropic's MoCA 2.0 technology (EN2710/EN1410) with a 3x3 11n WiFi solution to enable service providers the ability to deliver more than 100Mbps of 11n throughput, while still serving up High-Definition IP video over the in-home MoCA network. This reference design uses the powerful MoCA 2.0 network backbone to minimize service provider service calls associated with spotty whole-home WiFi service, which is critically important as more content is being streamed to tablet and smartphone devices.
—First Generation MoCA 1.1 USB: In order to offer more flexible options in a streamlined approach, Entropic has developed a USB bus-powered MoCA adapter. This device can easily offer a MoCA port to an Ethernet ready consumer electronics device or set-top-box already deployed in a consumer home without requiring an additional power adapter. After installation, the MoCA backbone can be leveraged for smooth HD video from over-the-top services or multi-room DVR solutions.
"Entropic leads the way in developing MoCA 1.1 and MoCA 2.0 reference designs that enable the connected home ecosystem, from service providers to retailers and consumers, to take full advantage of the power of the MoCA backbone," said Al Servati, vice president, Connectivity Group at Entropic. "As the leading MoCA silicon and software solution provider, our reference design program enables best-in-class solutions that allow our OEM customers and operators to quickly evaluate and bring-to-market working solutions based on our proven reference design platforms."