Powerline specification for 400Mbps and beyond

The Universal Powerline Association (UPA) wants to collaborate with service providers, network equipment manufacturers and network operators on the development of the PowerMAX Powerline Communication Standard (PLC). PowerMAX is intended to transport data at 400Mbps+ via electricity cables, while remaining compatible with current UPAPLC specifications, which support data speeds of up to 200Mbps.

As a first step, the group plans to develop a Market Requirements Document to define the goals for the PowerMAX specification including bandwidth requirements and underlying technology parameters such as physical layer throughput. The UPA says that PowerMAX will compete with fast internet access technologies such as FTTH, which are needed for bandwidth-hungry applications like high definition IPTV. Members of the UPA include companies such as Buffalo, D-Link, DS2, Netgear and Toshiba. The first Powerline adapters from DS3 and Devolo, capable of 400Mbps throughput, were on show at this year's CeBIT, although Devolo uses the HomePlug technology developed by Intellon, who do not use UPAPLC technology.

Because of its sensitivity to radio interference, PLC remains controversial. It uses a high frequency carrier signal to transmit data along electricity cables. These cables are ill suited to the transmission of high frequency signals because they have very high attenuation at high frequencies and also radiate part of the signal's energy. This can cause interference with radio systems operating on the short wave band – typically 2 to 32MHz. It is not only radio hams who would suffer – the interference can affect emergency services radio and also the new DRM radio broadcasts.

(trk)