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At CES 2013, home-network announcements ranged from faster Wi-Fi to connections carried over coax, power lines and other household wiring. Wi-Fi remained the leading option in the January 8 report, while vendors promoted wired alternatives for moving data between rooms and new support for the 5 GHz and 60 GHz bands. The figures and product claims below are historical, not current performance guarantees.
What CES 2013 showed about home networking
Rick Merritt’s January 8, 2013 EE Times report described a crowded field of home-network technologies claiming advances in capability and adoption. Its central contrast was between Wi-Fi and networks that carry data over wiring already installed in a home. Wi-Fi was still in the lead, but the report pointed to expansion into 5 GHz and 60 GHz as well as continued development of wired options.
The speeds, shipment figures and product announcements in the story reflect what vendors, alliances and analysts said in 2013. They should not be read as present-day rankings or as comparable guarantees of the speed a household will get.
Wired networking over existing home wiring
MoCA: networking over coaxial cable
Broadcom announced what EE Times described as its first single-chip implementation of Multimedia over Coax (MoCA), with throughput of up to 800 Mbits per second. The report said MoCA was used in set-top boxes from DirecTV, EchoStar, Comcast, Cox and Verizon. These are 2013 descriptions and claims, not confirmation of current equipment compatibility or speeds.
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Coax remains a possible route for networking where suitable cable reaches the rooms that need a connection. The MoCA Alliance’s current MoCA Home 2.5 information presents coax as an option for home networking and Wi-Fi backhaul, and states data rates up to 2.5 Gbps. That is an alliance-published capability, not an independent test result or a promise of the rate in a particular installation. Check that adapters and connected TV or broadband equipment are compatible with the intended setup.
G.hn: networking over several kinds of wiring
Marvell reported design wins for G.hn products that could use coax, phone lines, electrical wiring or optical cable. The EE Times story said Cambridge Industries Group, Comtrend, Teleconnect and Woxter were using Marvell chips in adapters, modules and other products, with claimed rates up to 1 Gbit/s. Those partner and rate details are claims reported in 2013.
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The standard’s scope is broader than any one wiring type: ITU-T’s G.9960 recommendation record describes a system architecture and physical layer for wireline home-network transceivers over premises wiring that can include phone lines, coax and power lines. The cited December 2011 edition is marked superseded; the record lists later editions as in force. A 2011 document’s status should not be mistaken for the status of the recommendation today.
HomePlug AV2: networking over power lines
The HomePlug Alliance said in 2013 that more than 300 products were certified to its specifications, including the “gigabit-class” HomePlug AV2. EE Times also reported an IHS iSuppli estimate that HomePlug product shipments grew 39 percent in 2012 and a forecast of 31 percent compounded growth from 2012 through 2016. The latter was a forecast made at the time, not a verified account of what shipments later did.
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Powerline networking uses electrical wiring, but the 2013 figures do not establish how a particular home’s wiring will perform or whether a current adapter will work with a specific setup. The report also connected HomePlug, Wi-Fi and Zigbee with the Smart Energy Profile 2 specification, then expected to appear in smart-grid products in 2013; that is historical context, not evidence of current adoption.
Wi-Fi advances announced at the show
802.11ac and the 5 GHz band
Broadcom announced initial 802.11ac support in a set-top box. TP-Link claimed a theoretical maximum data rate of 1.7 Gbits/s for its 802.11ac router. The report associated 802.11ac with the 5 GHz band. The 1.7 Gbits/s figure was explicitly theoretical and vendor-attributed; it is not a measured household result or a direct comparison with the wired-network claims.
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ABI Research figures cited in the report put Wi-Fi device sales at more than 1.5 billion in 2012. This was a historical estimate, not a current device count.
60 GHz and tri-band equipment
Qualcomm Atheros announced a tri-band module combining 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz 802.11ac support with a Wilocity chip supporting 802.11ad in the 60 GHz band. This was a product announcement in the 2013 report; it does not establish present availability or how well a device would cover a particular home.
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StreamBoost network-management software
Qualcomm Atheros also announced StreamBoost software, described as a way to display devices and applications on a home network and their real-time bandwidth use. The report records the announcement, not current software support or availability.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to apply the comparison to a home today
The 2013 story is useful as a snapshot of the technologies vendors were advancing, but its peak figures are not enough to choose a present-day setup. Start with the wiring and the rooms you need to connect:
- Check the route. Determine whether coax or suitable electrical wiring reaches both the router or network source and the target room. A technology’s theoretical reach is irrelevant if the needed wiring is absent or unsuitable.
- Check compatibility. Confirm that adapters work with existing TV, broadband and networking equipment, and that their ports match the devices you intend to connect.
- Match the connection to the task. For gaming, video calls and streaming, stability and latency matter alongside a headline maximum speed. The CES report does not provide comparable real-world test results for these uses.
- Account for installation. Consider adapter placement, available outlets or coax connections, and whether setup adds complexity compared with using Wi-Fi directly.
If coax already reaches the rooms that need a connection, MoCA Ethernet adapters are one current category to investigate for room-to-room networking or Wi-Fi backhaul. Check the alliance’s stated capabilities against the adapters and equipment available for your installation; the published maximum does not predict its actual throughput.
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