Powerline broadband on the up-and-up [printer-friendly] • The Register

Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/08/30/powerline_broadband/

Powerline broadband on the up-and-up

Convergence is key

Posted in Telecoms, 30th August 2005 09:43 GMT

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Broadband over powerline (BPL) is hardly a new approach to bringing high speed access to inaccessible parts, whether these are villages or corners of the home or office. But it has suffered from low vendor interest and various technical hitches, until now, when it is finally taking its place alongside wireless technologies as a way to expand broadband access cost effectively.

Its raised profile has been encouraged by the interest of government agencies, particularly in the US, and some key suppliers, notably Motorola, which is putting powerline at the heart of its strategy for using multiple converged connections to deliver broadband and mobile services. Importantly, like some smaller wireless vendors, it aims to integrate BPL and wireless tightly, making them complementary rather than competitive.

Such a converged approach would make it logical to harmonize standards too, and one of the main powerline industry bodies, the HomePlug Powerline Alliance, announced at this week’s Intel Developers Forum that it was aiming to become part of the IEEE standardization efforts that control the 802.11, 802.16 and 802.15 wireless specifications.

HomePlug targets IEEE

The Alliance will create an Implementers' Forum Board of Directors, which will include Intel, Cisco/Linksys and Motorola among its sponsor members, heavyweight support that will boost its ambition to have its standards adopted by the IEEE, as well as the European body ETSI. Other members of the new board include cableco Comcast, ISP Earthlink, retailer RadioShack, plus Japan’s Sharp and Sony. HomePlug has three key platforms - 1.0 + AV for broadband in-home networking; BPL for broadband access over powerlines; and home automation, for low bandwidth industrial or home control applications.

The new move is a response to the IEEE’s formation last month of a working group, P1901, focused on BPL, which has raised fears of a split between two standards that could fragment vendor efforts and deter potential powerline adopters. Philip Poulidis, senior director for BPL standards at one of the most prominent chip players in the niche, Intellon, said in an interview: “We welcome the IEEE effort, but it’s no secret IEEE standards take a long time. We hope that we can bring a fully functional PHY and MAC chip to the table and that IEEE will take that into consideration.” The PHY (physical layer) and MAC (media access control) specifications for HomePlug for AV were approved by the HomePlug Powerline Alliance earlier this year.

HomePlug is undoubtedly the most advanced body in developing such technologies and so it would be logical for the IEEE to adopt the technology for its own efforts in order to speed time to ratification of a standard – the slowness of this process increasingly threatens to sideline the IEEE and put the industry entirely into the hands of vendors with the power to set de facto standards, as we have seen in the stalemated 802.15.3a UltraWide- Band-based effort for fast home networking, which is likely to be superseded by a de facto version supported by the WiMedia Alliance.

The support for HomePlug from Sony, Intel, Cisco and Motorola - all so influential both in the home networking market and in the wireless standards targeting the same sector, including WiMedia - will enhance HomePlug’s chances enormously. Indeed, approval by the IEEE could be the last element required to ensure the Alliance’s success and make BPL as prominent on the communications agenda as wireless.

Wired and wireless converge

Whether the IEEE chooses the HomePlug platform or not for its BPL efforts, it is increasingly urgent that wired and wireless initiatives targeting the digital home are harmonized, so that convergence efforts such as Motorola’s are not entirely proprietary. Traditionally, the international standards bodies have steered clear of home networking gear because of the tight relationship between equipment vendors, chipmakers and service providers such as cablecos.

So first generation HomePlug was left to the consumer electronics manufacturers just as DOCSIS had been left to the cablecos and their vendors, with the IEEE and ETSI reluctant to seem to be setting up in competition. But now, issues such as BPL and multimedia are affecting all platforms, and technologies such as Wi-Fi are breaking down the old barrier between access and home distribution networks, so that the IEEE increasingly needs to ensure that its existing standards, such as 802.11, are in step with industry trends. It could also be the most important link to harmonize work by different powerline bodies, including Home-Plug, the European Universal Powerline Association and Japan’s Consumer Electronics Powerline Communications Alliance, all of which are taking slightly different approaches.

However, although wireless integration is an important issue, the IEEE has put its P1901 work within its Corporate Standards Group rather than the 802 Lan/Man/Pan groups, because this could accelerate the process for BPL. The group will review progress on September 13 in Dallas, Texas.

Another change that is starting to affect the IEEE is that service providers and network operators have always played a large role in in-home standards such as DOCSIS and HomePlug, but not in the IEEE bodies. This could lead to a change in structure and processes at the international organization, which has normally seen operators in the role of adopters of a standard once it is commercialized, rather than participants in its creation.

This view has already been thrown into some doubt in the worlds of WiMAX and WiMedia, whose respective alliances have undertaken significant work to adapt IEEE base standards to the needs of service providers – some of this effort, it can be argued, could take place earlier in the proceedings if the providers contributed more to the IEEE taskgroups.

Motorola and HomePlug

One vendor that is racing ahead of any standards efforts in wireless-powerline integration is Motorola, which will use chipsets from Intellon to provide HomePlug 1.0-based BPL products for utility companies that wish to use their networks to become ISPs. Motorola will combine BPL with its wireless ISP product, Canopy, which will be migrated to WiMAX next year. Canopy can be used instead of the more usual Wi-Fi to cover the last mile from electricity pole to home, with HomePlug for distribution within the house; or HomePlug can run to the home with Canopy for backhaul.

A key part of Motorola’s strategy is to target alternative service providers, such as utilities, with multi-technology platforms for bringing internet, mobile and triple play services to the home without the need for a cellular license or DSL build-out. Combinations of WiMAX, Wi-Fi and powerline technologies are one of its preferred routes for non-cellular operators.

HomePlug 1.0 is limited to 14Mbps but the next generation specification, HomePlug AV, will deliver 200Mbps, with backwards compatibility with 1.0. Intellon has created an intermediate, non-standardized step called Turbo with 85Mbps performance. The HomePlug BPL standard is mooted for next year, for ISPs using powerlines for access, and the aim is to harmonize the chipsets for this and AV, and for the home control variant, to boost volumes, enhance integration and reduce costs.

In addition to integrating HomePlug and Canopy, Motorola has invested in Intellon's second round of funding.

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