The coaxial cable has been a symbol of the television and broadcasting industry for a very long time. As the television evolved and the delivery of content changed with innovations, the coaxial cable was still there to deliver all of this to the set top boxes of millions of homes.

Now, the Multimedia over Coaxial Alliance, an organization that serves to establish industry standards on how all of the juicy content seen on television is delivered, has introduced version 2.0 of its specifications. When companies meet the requirements, they will receive certificates that will affirm that they have all of the technologies required to claim that their products are MoCA 2.0 certified.

Charles Cerino, president of MoCA, said excitedly, “With the completion of this tireless effort by our Certification Working Group members, we are open for business to begin testing MoCA 2.0. We already have several manufacturers in line to begin with their certifications. Let the certifications begin!”

For MoCA 2.0, products must allow for a particular throughput specification outlined in two distinct categories: baseline and enhanced. For the baseline mode, the product must be able to deliver at least 400 Mbps through MAC and 700 Mbps through the physical layer (PHY) on a single 100 MHz channel. Enhanced mode implies doubling the data rates and introducing a dual-bonded 100 MHz channel. There's also a “turbo mode” which boosts the MAC throughput for baseline mode to 500+ Mbps and 1+ Gbps for enhanced mode.

Along with this improvement, we also see enhancements for energy savings, such as a standby mode, which will allow for “Wake on MoCA” (WoM) and “Wake on MoCATM” (which functions like “Wake on LAN”).

Much like the previous MoCA 1.1, MoCA 2.0 has reverse compatibility with both versions 1.1 and 1.0.

Entropic (News - Alert), a company that makes chips for “connected home” products, actively produces MoCA chipsets. Their SVP of global marketing, Matt Rhodes, said, “The availability of the MoCA 2.0 certification test program and the corresponding golden nodes are important milestones for MoCA, enabling the rapid development and deployment of the technology globally. As a supplier of golden nodes for all MoCA certification programs, we are fully committed to ensuring that MoCA technology, and specifically MoCA 2.0, delivers a highly-efficient, affordable, and reliable whole-home entertainment network.”