Qualcomm Atheros (QCA) has announced its first HomePlug AV2 chipset.
The new QCA7450/AR1540 chipset supports the HomePlug AV2 specification released in January. This new standard includes new features designed to improve range and increase throughput for powerline networks. It operates at link rates up to 500 Mbps.
The new standard gains additional throughput by extending the operating frequency band from 30 to 86 MHz, lowering protocol overhead and using signal repeating and MIMO techniques.
While HomePlug AV used only the powerline Line-Neutral pair, AV2 uses MIMO techniques to transmit on any two power wire pairs formed by Line, Neutral and Ground.
HomePlug AV2 diagram
The chipset is sampling now, with volume shipments to follow later this year.