The new 1394 Over Coax standard is designed to enable the industry’s fastest whole-home network in a multi-supplier ecosystem featuring protected high-definition and multimedia content.

The 1394 Trade Association’s “no new wires” home networking standard provides for data rates up to 800 Megabits per second, enabling a high-speed multimedia home network that can work with all 1394 and IP-enabled devices over coax wiring. The MAC/PHY layers specified in the new standard are available now in a new chipset from Pulse~LINK using its CWave UWB technology. CWave features guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS) and data rate performance never before achieved over existing in-home coax cabling, says Bill Rose, marketing work group chair for the 1394 Trade Association.

The new standard also serves as the basis for the whole-home networking backbone defined by the High-Definition Audio-Video Network Alliance (HANA). HANA solutions enable consumers to share premium quality HD content across audio-video devices in a trusted environment. HANA, a cross-industry organization comprised of content providers, service providers, consumer electronic manufacturers and technology companies, chose 1394 for whole-home distribution of premium content because of its guaranteed QoS and DTCP security. Many of the guidelines for development of HANA-enabled products will be based on the new 1394 Over Coax Specification.

“Moving entertainment content around the home requires a robust networking technology with end-to-end Quality of Service, ensuring that a movie or program will play without interruption,” says Rose. “By combining the CWave MAC/PHY performance with the digital rights protection inherent in 1394, and designing it to coexist with all of the services already using the coax wiring in today’s homes, we have created the ideal solution for networking high-definition entertainment devices.”

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