Coaxsys, a start-up based in San Jose, California, introduced a home networking system that uses common cable TV-style coax wiring that is widely installed in many homes. The company said the distribution of video between various devices and rooms inside a home necessitates a network capable of QoS and speeds in excess of 20 Mbps in order to handle HDTV. The primary contenders for in-home networking have been new Category-5 wiring pulled throughout the home, using existing phone lines (the Home Phone Line Network Alliance), using existing electrical powerlines (the HomePlug initiative), or various wireless alternatives (802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g). Coaxsys argues that these approaches suffer from either from high cost (new wiring), low performance (throughput and latency), or potential interference/sensitivity issues (wireless). The Coaxsys approach is to run Ethernet over existing, in-wall coax cabling. Data rates across the coax initially would be 10/100 Mbps but potentially could scale to gigabit speed. Coaxsys will offer an Ethernet hub for deployment at the first point where cable TV enters the home. A Coaxsys Ethernet-to-coax adapter would be used to connect PCs, analog TVs, PVRs, game consoles, video cameras, MP3 jukeboxes or other digital consumer electronic devices to the network. The system will be introduced next month.
http://www.coaxsys.com
- Coaxsys is headed by John Morelli, who previously founded Nuron, a company that developed hardware encryption for the ecommerce industry.
