Broadband over Power Lines - will it Catch On - Is it Practical?

[! !]

"This is an achievement of a major national milestone," said Joseph E. Fergus, founder and chief executive of Communication Technologies, or Comtek, ... He said the technology "will be deployed within two years to scores of communities across the U.S." For years, broadband-over-power-line technology, which allows access to the Internet through any electrical socket in the home or office, has been touted as a potential alternative to service from cable and phone companies

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/05/AR2005100501982.html

http://www.physorg.com/news7014.html

[mikeandike22]

It is a terrible idea, it does provide cheap relative high speeds, but from most articles about it talk about how it disrupts most radio/tv and other such signals. If everyone has this then there will be no radio, and im not gonna give up that because some person cant afford dsl, lol. Just get dsl or cable besieds from the article above it isnt even that cheap.

http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry331.html

[hysteriaweb]

Interesting! I think this could actually cause a major problem for current broadband providers.

[goldeagle2005]

Really electrifying...

[server_crash]

I thought it was just the opposite -> expensive.
I think it will be quit an advancement if they can get it going. I know I'll appreciate it, because we don't live in an area where it's easy to get broadband, so we have a lot of trouble with our service, and the provider.

[bumsfeld]

A good idea for a developing country which has lots of powerlines already but not much highspeed cables. Places like India, China, Russia, South Africa and such.

Imagine all these poor people exposed to spyware and idiot popups!

[dcc]

There a some 20 cities running trials on BLP, and the most exspensive I've found so far was $40, the cheapest at $20. BLP does have an inherent problem of radio interference because the power lines aren't shielded like cable or telephone lines. Because of these interference problems BLP can't be used in sensitive area such as military installations. One town in Pa. has disscontinued their trial stating that it wouldn't produce enough revenue with only a 1.6 potential client base. Living in a rural area myself I would love to see Pacific Gas & Electric try it, where I'm living the only option is a satelitte hookup @ $60. plus a month...not an option with my budget.

[server_crash]

Yeah, it sucks when you don't have many options. When only have one provider for broadband in my area, and it took then about 3 months to come out and dig a line for us, because there were no existing lines to feed from.(at least we got it though)

[zeroth]

Hi guys,

This is not new, it´s been going on for years. About two years ago, I talked to Amperion about putting it in Europe but they didn´t have a 220V 50Hz model.

They have developed a system that injects the signal at 24MB and then, at the user end, there is a wireless device that clamps around the low voltage line and connects to a receiver at the PC. Don´t know what data rates they are delivering at that end but it´s a pretty neat solution.

check it out at www.amperion.com

[jwenting]

Weird, I first read about this in a scientific journal describing a pending experiment in the UK.
Never heard what happened with it but that was about 1996, well before current broadband technologies had matured to the point where they were mainstream and cheap enough for any but the most affluent companies and universities to afford them (most people at the time, if they had internet access at all, were connecting through 28k8 modems and paying by the second).

[kc0arf]

Hello,

BPL is a hamrful technology, as it causes destructive radio interference along the frequencies it operates. This interference propogates to other areas due to the properties of the electromagnetic spectrum to far away areas.

I blogged an article concerning this topic here at daniweb:

http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry331.html

Christian

[Lightninghawk]

we have so many power outages... I'm not sure that it would be a good thing until they could get the surges undercontrol.

Plus with cable and dsl they are very low voltage currents. with DC you have a lot more energy being pulled through.. it would be faster, but a little dangerous. Let's hope they think of things like that before they decide to release it.

[dcc]

[QUOTE=kc0arf]Hello,

causes destructive radio interference along the frequencies it operates.

Destructive radio interference? What a load! Disruptive, maybe. It has some inherent problems that have been blown out of proportion, like high KV power lines and cell phones causing tumors.

[jwenting]

Well said. Whatever problems there may be will be extremely localised. But as usual the naysayers and doom thinkers are out in force to destroy something.
In part this is of course fueled by traditional TelCos and cable companies who stand to loose a lot of their power over communications technology if this goes ahead, in part by environmentalists who are constantly trying to make anything having to do with energy look bad.

Dutch railways have I know been running comm signals over their powerlines for years now with no ill effects anywhere.
These aren't shielded either, and are a lot closer to the ground.
Radios, cellphones, everything works fine in trains.

[kc0arf]

Hello DCC,

I suppose that you have the technical data in front of you to make the claim "what a load". If you have read (and understood) the NTIA's report. You have also gone to the ARRL site, and have seen and heard the interference reports. It is rather convincing.

Your cell phones and broadcast frequencies will work next to BPL because it is on the other side of the spectrum, and not in the interference areas. Your cell phone operates anywhere from 800 - 900 MHz -- very far away from 5 - 80 MHz where the BPL technology operates. So you wouldn't recognize it.

As for the Dutch train comms system... are they high speed - high bandwith connections, or a serial-like interface of slow to moderate speed and bandwidth? I bet you the signals are not comparable.

It may be illuminating for you to discover that many Amateur radio stations that use HF have antennas about 50 - 100 ft. off the ground -- not tremendously high when you compare with TV towers that are usually 500 - 1000 feet up -- and these home HF antennas can reach overseas rather easily. So your train rails, if they operate at a similar height and power, may be expected to do the same.

Finally, as far as BPL cooking your brain, the tests done by the FCC and other groups indicate that radiation at a higher frequency tends to be absorbed more by the body. BPL will not cause concern there. Again, it is all a function of the frequency.

Christian

[dcc]

KcOarf...my coments regarding the radiation associated with KV and cell phones were sarcastic in nature and were not about the inherent problems of BLP, what I was alluding to was the media witch hunt that transpired several years back where cell phones and overhead high voltage transmition lines were being accused of being potentially responsible for brain tumors, and how the current treatment of BLP here riminds me of that.

As for the Dutch train comms system...Obviously there are going to be technologies that aren't going to be compatible with BLP, or highvoltage transmition lines for that matter, amateur radio operators are another good example of existing technology that engineers generally take into consideration before they begin a design.

As for the rest of my short diatribe, the key word here is distructive, and I reiterate...disruptive perhaps, but not distructive. All of us have experienced interference in one form of technology or another, I'm sure most all of us have had their cell phone ring while they were in front of their computer and heard the computer growl in response.

You need to ask yourself one very important question...do you really think a corpotation as large as a utility company is going to allow the use of a technology in conjunction with their equipment that is going to leave them open to the litigious public?

[Rashakil Fol]

I don't see what the problem is with causing a few radio frequencies to become unusable. Internet access is a much better use of that portion of the spectrum.

[kAtHicKa]

Sounds interesting... can someone let me know when it's available in my area ;) - I'm on dial-up and satellite is still way too expensive. :cry: