Setting Up A MoCA 2.0 Ethernet-Over-Coax Network, Linux LAN Benchmarks

I ran some iperf and netperf network performance benchmarks using the Phoronix Test Suite for comparing the different network options at Phoronix. The "client" system used for testing was a Broadwell-era ThinkPad X1 Carbon:

The X1 Carbon has Intel Wireless 7265 802.11ac WiFi while for the Gigabit wired connection when relevant I used a Plugable USB 3.0 adapter. Then the iperf3/netperf server the entire time was the Xeon E3-1280 v5 Skylake system that was connected to the main Gigabit network:

The scenarios compared were:

Main Router 802.11ac WiFi - Using the 802.11ac WiFi between the X1 Carbon and the ASUS RT-AC88U wireless router with the server being connected to there via the Gigabit LAN.

Main Router Gigabit Wired - Connecting the X1 Carbon to the Gigabit wired LAN via the Plugable USB 3.0 adapter on the RT-AC88U router.

ECB6000 MoCA 2.0 Adapter - Connecting the X1 Carbon to one of the Actiontec EC6000 adapters via coax cable with about a ~120 foot (~36 meter) run that in turn was connected to the other ECB6000 adapter that was connected to a Gigabit Ethernet port in the basement server room, which in turn via that Gigabit Switch was interfacing with the RT-AC88U router.

ZyXEL PLA4205 Powerline - With around the same distance as the MoCA setup with using these powerline adapters in the same physical locations as the coax network, I used the ZyXEL PLA4205 adapters I had available. The ZyXEL PLA4205 wall-plug adapters are rated for 500 Mbps.

Those were the configurations I could benchmark with the network hardware available.