Big Booger
May 28th, 2003, 10:10 AM
Networking your house is a problem. Either you rip up your walls, and run Cat5e unshielded twisted pair cables, or use your existing phone lines, AC power, or add in wireless.
If you go the Cat5 route, you get fast, 100 megabits per second networking, capable of supporting multiple HDTV or regular video streams, audio, and lots lots more. It's more than fast enough for any home's needs. But if you use AC Power, phone lines or wireless you get much less performance - in most cases not even fast enough to ship a single video stream from point a to point b.
But there's another networking topology already in most homes - the RG6 or RG59 television coax cable used to send antenna, cable or satellite signals around your home, and to your TVs and settop boxes. It's never been used for networking data, because the cables are dirty, there are attenuation problems, and other issues.
But back in the early days of Ethernet networking, special high-grade coaxial cables were used in a bus mode. And now, Coaxsys has brought those days back, with its new version of Ethernet over standard TV-grade coaxial cable.
The devices are fiendishly simply. A four port Pure Speed Network Hub sits where your TV signal enters the house, and then propagates that signal around either a star-based or splitter based coaxial network. Further down the coax cable plant, a Coax to Ethernet converter, called a Pure Speed Network adapter, converts from the 8-wire plug-based Ethernet used by today's networked devices into a signal that can transmit along the coaxial cable.
The devices operate at the physical layer of the network, which means there's no funky packet distortion going on. And they turn the coaxial cable plant into a standard CDMA Ethernet device, using collision avoidance and detection, and even the same Ethernet frames.
The system transmits and receives in the available bandwidth between Cable TV channels, and where Satellite TV operates. The company says that it will work simultaneously with TV, Satellite, cable modems and cable phones without interference.
The company claims speeds of 100 megabits per second - the same as today's fast Ethernet, and with a software upgrade, 1 gigabit per second is possible. The network supports up to eight adapters, although with Ethernet hubs many more than eight devices can communicate over the network.
Because the network is so fast, it should support many simultaneous video and audio streams. It will quickly connect game consoles, PCs, PVRs and other devices with Ethernet ports together and to the internet. It's pretty much the holy grail of home networking - a fast Ethernet network, using the cheap and ubiquitous TV coax cable - which most cableTV providers are more than happy to run around your house for a nominal charge.
Of course these are all claims made by Coaxsys. We'll have to see if the products really operate at the speeds promised, without significant delays from interference. They also should be simple to install, but we'll be verifying that claim too when we get our hands on the devices.
There is one drawback, and that's price. A network starter kit with two adapters and the four-port hub will cost $350 when the devices are released in July. That's considerably more than any wireless solution connecting two rooms together, although you do get a lot more bandwidth. The company expects that price to fall over time, but for now, it's a lot of money to spend, albeit for some pretty sweet bandwidth.
http://gamers.com/news/1383558
http://www.coaxsys.com/ - website that this news is about.
Very interesting concept indeed.. Might save some of you a heap of funds by using your existing coax cable to network your homes and businesses!
:D
If you go the Cat5 route, you get fast, 100 megabits per second networking, capable of supporting multiple HDTV or regular video streams, audio, and lots lots more. It's more than fast enough for any home's needs. But if you use AC Power, phone lines or wireless you get much less performance - in most cases not even fast enough to ship a single video stream from point a to point b.
But there's another networking topology already in most homes - the RG6 or RG59 television coax cable used to send antenna, cable or satellite signals around your home, and to your TVs and settop boxes. It's never been used for networking data, because the cables are dirty, there are attenuation problems, and other issues.
But back in the early days of Ethernet networking, special high-grade coaxial cables were used in a bus mode. And now, Coaxsys has brought those days back, with its new version of Ethernet over standard TV-grade coaxial cable.
The devices are fiendishly simply. A four port Pure Speed Network Hub sits where your TV signal enters the house, and then propagates that signal around either a star-based or splitter based coaxial network. Further down the coax cable plant, a Coax to Ethernet converter, called a Pure Speed Network adapter, converts from the 8-wire plug-based Ethernet used by today's networked devices into a signal that can transmit along the coaxial cable.
The devices operate at the physical layer of the network, which means there's no funky packet distortion going on. And they turn the coaxial cable plant into a standard CDMA Ethernet device, using collision avoidance and detection, and even the same Ethernet frames.
The system transmits and receives in the available bandwidth between Cable TV channels, and where Satellite TV operates. The company says that it will work simultaneously with TV, Satellite, cable modems and cable phones without interference.
The company claims speeds of 100 megabits per second - the same as today's fast Ethernet, and with a software upgrade, 1 gigabit per second is possible. The network supports up to eight adapters, although with Ethernet hubs many more than eight devices can communicate over the network.
Because the network is so fast, it should support many simultaneous video and audio streams. It will quickly connect game consoles, PCs, PVRs and other devices with Ethernet ports together and to the internet. It's pretty much the holy grail of home networking - a fast Ethernet network, using the cheap and ubiquitous TV coax cable - which most cableTV providers are more than happy to run around your house for a nominal charge.
Of course these are all claims made by Coaxsys. We'll have to see if the products really operate at the speeds promised, without significant delays from interference. They also should be simple to install, but we'll be verifying that claim too when we get our hands on the devices.
There is one drawback, and that's price. A network starter kit with two adapters and the four-port hub will cost $350 when the devices are released in July. That's considerably more than any wireless solution connecting two rooms together, although you do get a lot more bandwidth. The company expects that price to fall over time, but for now, it's a lot of money to spend, albeit for some pretty sweet bandwidth.
http://gamers.com/news/1383558
http://www.coaxsys.com/ - website that this news is about.
Very interesting concept indeed.. Might save some of you a heap of funds by using your existing coax cable to network your homes and businesses!
:D