- 8 Flicker-Free HD Streams
- Lock-Down Security
- Impressive List of Wins
Every time you talk to Wi-Fi chip maker Celeno, you walk away thinking that Wi-Fi, or at least Celeno’s implementation of Wi-Fi, will kill off wireline network technologies like MoCA, HomePlug and the just-around-the-corner HomeGrid (G.hn). Celeno makes 3x3 MIMO Wi-Fi chips that incorporate a number of advanced technologies that it developed specifically for handling up to eight concurrent streams of HD video. Yes, eight HD streams and all flicker-free. It’s quite a promise.
MoCA Backbone Today; All Celeno Tomorrow
The growing consensus these days is that MoCA will be the backbone that’s used to move data and video to an area in the home, like the second floor, but then Wi-Fi is used to feed less demanding data to devices like tablets.
Liberty Global’s UPC Broadband will soon start offering a STB/DVR called Horizon that comes with both MoCA and Celeno’s Wi-Fi chips. Celeno says that the MoCA consensus will begin crumbling when a pay TV service like UPC gets enough confidence in Celeno’s Wi-Fi implementation to use it exclusively and disable MoCA altogether.
It’s unfair to call Celeno merely a chipmaker. It has figured out, it says, how to deliver multiple streams of HD video in a home with a reliability that equals or exceeds any wireline network technology, including the gold standard MoCA.
Celeno produces dual concurrent band video-grade Wi-Fi chips that can handle HD and IPTV content streaming, OTT video distribution, VoIP, multiplayer gaming and Web browsing. The chips concurrently use the 5 GHz frequency and the 2.4 GHz frequency to provide flicker-free quality of service (QoS) and high performance.
Celeno Solves the Two Barriers to Wi-Fi
Celeno’s VP of marketing Lior Weiss immediately addresses the two objections that wireline proponents raise against traditional Wi-Fi:
- Guaranteed QoS so that even the most demanding HD video is seen flicker-free. Keep in mind that unlike MoCA, whose media is the ever consistent coax, Wi-Fi’s media is the air and it is constantly changing as people move around the room, windows and doors are opened and closed, and the air-conditioner or heater goes on and off.
- Security so that the neighbors can’t hack in and watch what they haven’t paid for.
Celeno’s OptimizAIR implementation of Wi-Fi is totally compatible with all existing Wi-Fi devices and fulfills the QoS expected from a carrier-grade pay-TV solution. One example is the UPC’s Horizon box, which has Celeno chips in both the DVR and the less expensive satellite stations that access the DVR. UPC has also implemented OTT in the Horizon, which will further increase traffic on the home network.
Celeno’s Wi-Fi implementation, unlike other “advanced” forms of Wi-Fi that use MIMO technology, was developed specifically to handle multiple streams of HD videos, not just the less voluminous data carried when browsing, Weiss said.
What is unique to Celeno’s chips, Weiss said, is that it is channel aware. First it measures the “air” channel in real time and optimizes the transmission accordingly.
Second, for good signal coverage, Celeno’s real time beam forming technology continuously tracks and targets the location of the receiving devices (like iPads) without needing collaboration from the receiving device — whether or not it has a Celeno chip.
Third, the signal robustness is due to Celeno’s chips being channel aware. It is not a trial and error effort that is continuously increasing and decreasing the signal’s speed until the data gets through. Celeno’s technology can predict within 10 milliseconds what the best speed is at any moment and send accordingly. Air is not a consistent media like coax, Weiss said, so the monitoring has to be continuous to detect people moving, tablets changing locations and other disruptions to the air. It accurately predicts the correct speed for each device and silos it so other receiving devices don’t suffer any loss of data.
Fourth, QoS is achieved by a smart scheduler that manages transmission time to all clients to make sure every STB and portable display gets its guaranteed minimum throughput for a good HD viewing experience.
Celeno chips provide lock-down security, Weiss said, because it uses the full 128-bit encryption that the Wi-Fi spec provides.
The Move to Add TV Sets in Europe
Weiss agrees that the US, with its widespread deployment of coax, will be slower to move to Wi-Fi-only for STBs. Europe and Asia, he said, are different and will need a non-coax solution. In the past, pay TV services from telcos have tried one of the several varieties of powerline but found them lacking for multiple streams of HD video. One proof of that is the long-time HomePlug box maker LEA recently launched a Wi-Fi only adapter that uses Celeno’s chips. LEA said its new video bridge products will use Celeno’s CL1830 3x3 450Mbps beam-forming MIMO Wi-Fi technology and be available in December.
Some European homes may have several TVs but typically only one is connected to the pay TV box. The other two receive free over-the-air broadcasts that are popular in Europe, unlike in the US. Undoubtedly UPC is counting on its low-cost remote STBs that feed off the DVR to entice subscribers to upgrade. Besides the remotes also offer OTT content and multi-source search — pay TV, VoD, OTT and the user’s locally stored content.
When pay TV services start discovering the reliability and security of Celeno’s Wi-Fi chips for delivering their HD videos, it’ll be “goodbye MoCA and hello Celeno,” Weiss said.
We will provide Horizon’s retail price in Holland as soon as we can.
Celeno does have one factor working to its disadvantage and that’s called second sourcing. Few major pay TV services are likely to buy boxes with Wi-Fi whose supplier is only one vendor — and a tiny, new one at that. Liberty Global invested $12 million into Celeno to get its say in Celeno’s business — and hopefully to make a profit down the road.
Pro P1905
As might be expected, Celeno is very pro P1905, the IEEE effort to provide a bridge between Wi-Fi and wireline networks — “anything that helps the cause of Wi-Fi,” Weiss said. Because P1905 is a software module, it can be added to Celeno’s chipsets. The STB maker can then add a network layer that automatically and continuously figures out the best route for the video and data — whether wireline or Wi-Fi.
Weiss envisions the day when an STB maker could buy a combination of either HomePlug and Celeno’s Wi-Fi or MoCA and Celeno’s Wi-Fi packaged with P1905 from either Celeno or the STB maker. It’s similar to what STB makers do with TR69 remote diagnostic technology: use their TR69 technology or the chipmakers.
An Impressive List of Wins
With its history of making HomePlug adapters, France-based LEA may be the first with a HomePlug/Celeno Wi-Fi box. ZyXEL, which makes broadband access boxes, also selected Celeno’s Wi-Fi chips for its 5-GHz Wireless N Media Streaming Box, the WAP5605. Consumers and service providers can use the media streaming box to wirelessly bridge home gateways and access points with game consoles, set-top boxes, media streamers and digital TVs for a whole-home HD entertainment network.
We expect Celeno to announce deals with more companies that make network boxes for the retail market at CES in January.
Companies that have publicly committed to deploying STBs with Celeno’s 3x3 MIMO Wi-Fi chips include:
- China Telecom in gateways from FiberHome.
- Liberty Global in its Samsung made DVR/STBs.
- France-based Bouygues Telecom, also with Samsung boxes.
- Yes, the Israeli satellite TV service.
- Swedish STB maker Inteno, which supplies the Nordic market.
- STB maker Technicolor was showing its MediaEncore product at The Cable Show.
Weiss points out that a number of tiny US telcos are already using boxes with Celeno chips including adopted by dozens of rural broadband service providers and independent telephone operating companies across the nation, including: BTC Broadband, DTC Communications, Duo County Telephone, Etex Telephone Cooperative, Farmers Telephone Cooperative, Horizon Chillicothe Telephone, Liberty Communications, Surry Telephone Membership and Star Telephone.
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