Coaxsys demos turbo charged in-home network

Coaxsys said today that it will demonstrate the ability to transmit data at 200 Mb/s using Ethernet over coax cable during the upcoming International CES show in Las Vegas next month.

The demonstration, being done with semiconductor vendor STMicroelectronics, isn't a precursor to a product announcement but is meant more to show that the technology is available, said Ted Archer, director of marketing for Coaxsys.

"Our objective is not to deceive anyone into thinking this is a product yet," he said, noting that when the technology is put in product form it will be in chipsets and other integrated devices. "There is applicability a year or 15 months from now, which is where the vendors are looking."

The demonstration also will prove that Coaxsys' technology can have sustained data rates very close 200 Mb/s. The issue of data rates and throughput has become increasingly important as the MoCA alliance, which competes directly with Coaxsys, completed a plug-fest in which it said it connected a number of devices at 270 Mb/s.

However, according to Archer, those levels don't represent sustainable data throughput.

"Our objective is to show that those numbers are actually achievable in throughput," he said.

Whether any consumer will actually need 200 Mb/s in the home is another question altogether. In fact, Archer said it's not likely most consumers will have an immediate requirement for the technology, but eventually they will.

"We've gone today from 40 to 100 as the expected bandwidth," he said. "As soon as those networked [personal video recorders] and media service get implemented broadly, they're going to need the [200 Mb/s] bandwidth."