The Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) has approved its newest specification, MoCA 2.5, capable of up to 2.5Gbps actual data rates, with additional features that address network management and security as required by service providers worldwide.
The new specification is backward interoperable with MoCA 2.0 and MoCA 1.1. MoCA 2.0 was released in January 2015 with a 400Mbps throughput.
“MoCA has once again raised the performance bar for home networking with an increase in throughput that is more than two and half times MoCA 2.0 with additional capabilities operators need and end users want. In addition, 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,” says Charles Cerino, president of MoCA. “In MoCA 2.5, service providers have another comprehensive standard from MoCA for building their networks.”
Additional MoCA 2.5 Highlights:
- 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 of 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 2.5 offers additional performance profiles which enables MoCA 2.0 devices to be upgraded and take advantage of the features described above.
Profile B: 400 Mb/s net data rate up to 16 nodes, and 500 Mbps in turbo mode (two nodes only).
Profile C: 800 Mb/s net data rate with channel bonding up to 16 nodes, and 1 Gbps in turbo mode (two nodes only).
Profile D: 1.5 Gbps, 2 Gbps and 2.5 Gbps net data rates up to 16 nodes.
The new specification is available to members now.
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