Seeker of Truth
05-23-2003, 03:11 PM
Broadband over Powerlines
The 3rd Pipe
I.J. Hudson, Tech Reporter
When we see powerlines, we think electricity. But Current Technologies and others see another pipe into our homes - to deliver data services, including the Internet. And the power "network" goes more places than cable or DSL.
Current Technologies and PEPCO have been running a demonstration of Broadband over Powerline technology for several months in the Potomac, Maryland area. About 70 customers connect to the Internet through their home wiring. Dr. Sanford Glazer is one of those customers. "When I tell people about what this system is, they say, well, you're kidding me. But, you could really plug into any a.c. outlet."
FCC chairman Michael Powell wanted to see the technology for himself and got a brief tour of a demonstration home. He liked what he saw and dismissed suggestions Powerline Internet was several years away. "We're going to have to stop naysaying about what's not possible and start following what technology is telling us is possible."
What is possible is filtering out interference and bypassing problems in a network designed to carry electricity exclusively.
It works like this. The Internet and other services can run through fiber and connect to the Power lines through Couplers. The data travels through the copper, then bypasses the transformer that converts the high voltage to the household voltage we use for our lights and computers. Getting around that transformer was a major breakthrough.
The house wiring becomes a ready-made network offering 2-4 megabits per second at any outlet by using a special plug-in modem that goes between the outlet and a computer.
That's fast enough for decent video, Internet radio, and to play games against online competition. The upload and download speeds are the same.
The same plug also contains special filters, not only to keep the a.c. and data separate but to remove noise induced into wiring by appliances.
Special access points that plug into an outlet are also available to permit wireless networking (802.11b) at the same time. Take a laptop anywhere in the house. Chairman Powell sees the FCC role this way: "We think what we are trying to do is have bright headlights and see ahead and see where there will be regulatory or legal problems, and try to get ahead of them and get them removed so these technologies can come more efficiently and quickly to consumers."
PEPCO owns this natural network, sees it as a potential new revenue stream, and may use it to improve service. Michael Sullivan is Vice President of Consumer Satisfaction. He says PEPCO's main interest is "to provide our customers with better data, outage detection for example, energy use data for customers who are trying to control their electricity consumption."
Obvious customers for Broadband over Powerline are people who can't get Cable or DSL, or are unhappy with current service. Current Technologies President Jay Birnbaum says there's really nothing in the way of commercializing the service later this year and competing with the other "pipes" into the home. "I mean we certainly will compete competitively with cable and DSL. How much of a fire lights under them remains to be seen."
Current Technologies hopes to launch its service later this year, and probably will offer tiered pricing.
Source (http://www.nbc4.com/technology/2106035/detail.html)
The 3rd Pipe
I.J. Hudson, Tech Reporter
When we see powerlines, we think electricity. But Current Technologies and others see another pipe into our homes - to deliver data services, including the Internet. And the power "network" goes more places than cable or DSL.
Current Technologies and PEPCO have been running a demonstration of Broadband over Powerline technology for several months in the Potomac, Maryland area. About 70 customers connect to the Internet through their home wiring. Dr. Sanford Glazer is one of those customers. "When I tell people about what this system is, they say, well, you're kidding me. But, you could really plug into any a.c. outlet."
FCC chairman Michael Powell wanted to see the technology for himself and got a brief tour of a demonstration home. He liked what he saw and dismissed suggestions Powerline Internet was several years away. "We're going to have to stop naysaying about what's not possible and start following what technology is telling us is possible."
What is possible is filtering out interference and bypassing problems in a network designed to carry electricity exclusively.
It works like this. The Internet and other services can run through fiber and connect to the Power lines through Couplers. The data travels through the copper, then bypasses the transformer that converts the high voltage to the household voltage we use for our lights and computers. Getting around that transformer was a major breakthrough.
The house wiring becomes a ready-made network offering 2-4 megabits per second at any outlet by using a special plug-in modem that goes between the outlet and a computer.
That's fast enough for decent video, Internet radio, and to play games against online competition. The upload and download speeds are the same.
The same plug also contains special filters, not only to keep the a.c. and data separate but to remove noise induced into wiring by appliances.
Special access points that plug into an outlet are also available to permit wireless networking (802.11b) at the same time. Take a laptop anywhere in the house. Chairman Powell sees the FCC role this way: "We think what we are trying to do is have bright headlights and see ahead and see where there will be regulatory or legal problems, and try to get ahead of them and get them removed so these technologies can come more efficiently and quickly to consumers."
PEPCO owns this natural network, sees it as a potential new revenue stream, and may use it to improve service. Michael Sullivan is Vice President of Consumer Satisfaction. He says PEPCO's main interest is "to provide our customers with better data, outage detection for example, energy use data for customers who are trying to control their electricity consumption."
Obvious customers for Broadband over Powerline are people who can't get Cable or DSL, or are unhappy with current service. Current Technologies President Jay Birnbaum says there's really nothing in the way of commercializing the service later this year and competing with the other "pipes" into the home. "I mean we certainly will compete competitively with cable and DSL. How much of a fire lights under them remains to be seen."
Current Technologies hopes to launch its service later this year, and probably will offer tiered pricing.
Source (http://www.nbc4.com/technology/2106035/detail.html)