[ILUG] [OT] Power Line communications ?

[Geoff Moore]

We're not all on the same piece of mains cable you know :)

High speed data can't get up through your local transformer anyway (at your
closest sub-station which is probably closer than you think), so you're
really only sharing a network with people connected to the same transformer
as you....OK still quite a few but not the whole country.

The way these networks have been implemented elsewhere is to tap the data
off at the sub-station then convert to a more conventional high bandwidth
media such as fibre or microwave.

The fibre is then deployed using the electricity "infra-structure" ie it is
thrown in the same ditch or (as happened in the UK) they wrap the fibre onto
the earth wire at the top of the electricity pylons (they had a really cool
but rather scary looking machine for doing this).

Lots of work been done on this topic over the last few years, especially for
applications like reading your electriciy meter remotely. The big hurdles
have always been that you can't get high speed data through the substations
without tapping out and bypassing and you can't predict what the cabling in
the house is going to be like.

Both problems have been worked around with clever DSP based NICs but
generally bandwidth is the loser in the battle.

Geoff

====================================
Straight Forward Solutions Ltd
Maynooth Road, Prosperous,
Naas, Co.Kildare, Ireland
Phone : +353 (0)45 892739
Fax : +353 (0)45 893880
Mobile : +353 (0)86 8179683
email : geoffm at straight-forward.com
====================================

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ilug-admin at linux.ie [mailto:ilug-admin at linux.ie]On Behalf Of
> Declan Grady
> Sent: 15 January 2002 8:13 AM
> To: ilug at linux.ie
> Subject: [ILUG] [OT] Power Line communications ?
>
>
> Anyone know if this is feasible ?
>
> www.ds2.es
>
> 42 MBit/Sec over your power line ?
>
> Makes very interesting reading, but I cant understand how it could work ..
> surely it'd be like having every 'net user in the country on the
> one pieces
> of thinnet ?
>
> Declan
> [NODIS]
>
>
>
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