The latest Multimedia Over Coax Alliance specifications call for MoCA network speeds to increase 2.5 times over current levels. MoCA 2.5, released April 13, boosts MoCA home network speed as high as 2.5 Gbps and improves on network management and security features of earlier versions, the Alliance said.
In a press release, MoCA President Charles Cerino boasted that ¨the technology was delivered in one year, from start to finish, further indicating that the Alliance can quickly respond to the market demands of operators. In MoCA 2.5, service providers have another comprehensive standard from MoCA for building their networks.”
The new MoCA standard is backwards-compatible with MoCA 2.0 and 1.1, according to the press release.
Beyond MoCA Network Speeds
Other enhancements in the new MoCA standard include:
- MoCA protected setup (MPS): Easier setup and addition of new nodes with password sharing via push-button (similar to Wi-Fi® WPS).
- Management Proxy: Management of nodes that don’t have upper layer management support by supporting management queries from one node on behalf of other nodes.
- Enhanced Privacy: Secure data communications with additional longer password and using different keys between MoCA 2.5 nodes compared to what MoCA 1.1/MoCA 2.0 nodes use along with the ability to control data forwarding of legacy nodes to and from MoCA 2.5 nodes.
- Network wide Beacon Power: Provides better control of peak signal power on the coax by configuring the beacon power of nodes to an absolute number (within tolerance of the hardware) and advertise that absolute number to other nodes so that the same value is used after handoff.
- Bridge detection: Ability to distinguish between nodes belonging to different networks and pass proprietary information between nodes before admission, as well as pass that same information to upper layers to prevent neighbors from forming a common network.
MoCA is one of several standards development and certification associations vying for a dominant position in the smart home market space. Bluetooth, G.hn and the ZigBee Alliance are others.
You also might want to include the growing number of consumer and home network-oriented Internet of Things (IoT) standards and certification bodies in the frame.
