ZyXEL PLA5206 AV2 1000

[azazel1024]

As far as I know both Powerline Adapters and MOCA also work on Half duplex. They can also only talk to one client at a time. Thus when you plug in more than two adaters, you must share bandwidth. In fact I believe they work almost exactly like wireless except the medium they use is cable instead of the air (and they use different frequencies).
In my house my MOCA adapters give me about 4ms delay. My 5ghz network only gives me 1 to 2ms delay. Now if more client devices join my 5ghz network the latency will increase, but I guess you could always just add another 5ghz network on a different channel and use that.

Correct. They are all half duplex and all are shared medium. Though MOCA does have a mild advantage that a lot of times, if the coax install is a bit more modern, you might be able to get away with breaking up your coax network for more shared bandwidth. Example, all my coax runs to my storage room, and from there I have a wire heading out to my ONT box in my garage (also the cable from the pole is there as well, but I don't have Comcast).

So if I wanted to not share bandwidth, it would be easy to disconnect a run from the splitter and plug in a MOCA bridge on the end. Downside is I'd lose cable TV to that outlet, but meh. Anyway, it is a way to break it up and not share the coax network. You can't do that with powerline or wireless, though with wireless you can break it up by channels if you have multiple base stations (I do and I do).

802.11ac is generally much better performance over short and possibly medium distances over powerline. The ~200Mbps results of the best currently on the market Homeplug kit in ideal scenarios is less than half the best results I have with just 2:2 867Mbps 802.11ac, let alone if I was doing a 3:3 (or 4:4!) 802.11ac wireless bridge (or had a 3:3 adapter). Even at medium distances through 2 walls, the floor and 30ft I can get around 150-160Mbps, granted it drops off FAST after that in my house (but any further and you get a couple more walls in the way). Heck even just sticking with 2.4GHz I can get 60-70Mbps (40MHz mode) 45ft away, a floor and 4 walls in the way. Powerline can maybe/probably beat that if the noise charateristics of the circuits are decent, but at closer distances, it probably/possibly can't (especially against 5GHz).

Just a thought. Not everything is necessarily the best in all circumstances, but wireless, for now at least, is certainly much faster in short and probably medium distance applications. With no obstructions, wireless is deffinitely far superior at any distance (for example, I can punch 80Mbps easily on 2.4GHz 20MHz 2:2 across 150ft of open air...if I changed that up to 5GHz 80MHz, that would probably be >250Mbps. I highly doubt powerline could hit either of those numbers after 150ft of electrical wiring).

 

[Entropy]

802.11ac is generally much better performance over short and possibly medium distances over powerline. The ~200Mbps results of the best currently on the market Homeplug kit in ideal scenarios

Well, people are particularly interested in powerline, because bandwidth is about to take a step up, and from a multitude of manufacturers, with the introduction of AV2-MIMO. Hopefully before hell freezes over.

is less than half the best results I have with just 2:2 867Mbps 802.11ac, let alone if I was doing a 3:3 (or 4:4!) 802.11ac wireless bridge (or had a 3:3 adapter). Even at medium distances through 2 walls, the floor and 30ft I can get around 150-160Mbps, granted it drops off FAST after that in my house (but any further and you get a couple more walls in the way). Heck even just sticking with 2.4GHz I can get 60-70Mbps (40MHz mode) 45ft away, a floor and 4 walls in the way. Powerline can maybe/probably beat that if the noise charateristics of the circuits are decent, but at closer distances, it probably/possibly can't (especially against 5GHz).

But, as you point out yourself, this is highly situational. I live in an old brick house from the 1930s, which has been added to, so sometimes the brick walls are double even indoors (!). Internet is pulled into the house in a lower corner. WiFi is atrocious even across the house on the same level, worse still between floors! Since the roofs in the rooms are old style curved corners and edges, you really, really don't want to drill holes in them. So WiFi is a problem, and regular ethernet is hopeless between floors.

That's why we have different networking solutions. I'd love to have a couple of Cat6-7 connected access points on each floor, but it's not going to happen. If I can get 100+Mb/s LAN access throughout our house with the aid of the new powerline adapters, it would be a real relief.

 

[azazel1024]

Sounds like PLA is ideal for your situation. I was merly pointing out that in most situations, wireless is still going to be faster. Most isn't all though and PLA is pretty much made for the old houses + poured concrete construction.

 

[ltte]

Here is a French review of the dlan 1200+ with some nice speed improvements 26-63% vs 650+: http://www.lesnumeriques.com/adaptateur-cpl/devolo-dlan-1200-p21591/test.html

Devolo have also got a dlan 1200+ with WiFi AC built-in http://www.devolo.com/en/Press/Pres...1200+-WiFi-ac-Gigabit-Powerline-meets-WiFi-ac

Due in late November according to this site: http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/products/19721-devolo-1200ac/reviews/

 

[Entropy]

The Devolo 1200 is actually available in my country right now (at ridiculous prices for just having a new chip, but still) And since they use the same chipset as most of the announced AV2-MIMO products I can't for the life of me understand what is holding Zyxel, TP-link, TrendNet and all the other regular suspects back.

Given the lack of even preorder availability, I'd say products are at least a month away and possibly more, yet the Devolo 1200 reviews show no instability or glitches that their competitors may have decided to delay their products to work around before beginning end-user sales.
I just don't get it.

 

[profd]

Maybe they are holding out for the 1800+ chipsets?

 

[Entropy]

Maybe they are holding out for the 1800+ chipsets?

If so, I think we would have seen some collaboration announcements to that effect. The manufacturers seem perfectly happy to simply put a higher number on their product, witness the 1Gbit/s Zyxel 5206....

Incidentally, since the faster protocol (so far only implemented by the Broadcom chipset as far as I know) simply increases the maximum bandwidth to 86MHz, I have to wonder just how much of a benefit that is going to provide over powerwiring. Powerline doesn't make sense at all if you are not at least going between rooms, and I wonder how much signal there is going to be at 86MHz once you've separated the adapters by some reasonable amount. My gut feeling is that the differences between 0-65MHz and 0-85MHz devices will be negligeable at realistic distances, but hope springs eternal.

 

[azazel1024]

If so, I think we would have seen some collaboration announcements to that effect. The manufacturers seem perfectly happy to simply put a higher number on their product, witness the 1Gbit/s Zyxel 5206....

Incidentally, since the faster protocol (so far only implemented by the Broadcom chipset as far as I know) simply increases the maximum bandwidth to 86MHz, I have to wonder just how much of a benefit that is going to provide over powerwiring. Powerline doesn't make sense at all if you are not at least going between rooms, and I wonder how much signal there is going to be at 86MHz once you've separated the adapters by some reasonable amount. My gut feeling is that the differences between 0-65MHz and 0-85MHz devices will be negligeable at realistic distances, but hope springs eternal.

I wouldn't hope. Signal attenuates fast, especially over parallel unshielded conductors.

Looking at some attenuation charts, I don't happen to see an exact pattern, and this is UNSHIELDED wiring, which probably also makes a difference (and again, parallel conductors). At a guess, you are probably looking at an additional 2-3dB per 100ft for an 85MHz signal over a 65MHz signal.

What that means for how usable that is probably depends on how good the connection is.

In a low noise situation over a short distance, it probably does mean most of that chunk is usable. At longer distances and/or with noise...probably means almost no difference in performance. 5-10% in not great circumstances? Maybe 20-30% in ideal circumstances?

 

[oliamali]

There are some YouTube videos from Asia of Sineoji 1800 speed tests that look pretty impressive

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