By Venkat Uppuluri, Sigma Designs, Inc. (SIGM), Wireless Products Division
Courtesy of Digital TV Designline Jun 27, 2007

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This document paper provides a brief description of UWB-over-Coax technology (Ultra-wide-Band-over-Coax). It discusses the motivation for and benefits of UWB-over-Coax, its application, and some initial research findings in relation to high definition signals.

What really lead to UWB over Coax?
Whole home A/V streaming without having to lay additional cabling has long been a service provider requirement. It saves money and makes the deployment of changes to existing services much more viable and flexible. Reuse of existing coax cabling in homes to transport content for whole home media distribution, lead to the initial research activities by service providers. MoCA and HomePlug were two early technologies that gained quick review. However both had their drawbacks and faced several hurdles and challenges which lead service providers to look for alternative technologies that would meet their requirements for whole home media distribution. Typical requirements for whole home coverage for most service providers are as follows:

• Whole home coverage
• Scalable technology that can offer higher bandwidth in the future
• 200 Mbps " 400 Mbps multimedia throughput
• Reliable transport of media over a radius of about 300 feet
• Standards-based solutions for interoperability
• Easy to adopt and deploy, with evolving devices and services
• Reduce size, labor and installation or deployment costs with self-install options
• Support for wired and wireless scenarios
• Must be able to support emerging video topologies
• Must be able to support any content on any screen (multiple streams), any time