Hi Folks
I would like to find out if there are any known State run broadband connectivity services for homes? I mean government providing IP based connectivity over grid power?
Noah
If you're referring to broadband over power lines or BPL, that experiment TTBOMK died well over a decade ago. Attenuation, performance, and interference to licensed radio users were the main factors.
Hi Jay
Hi Folks
I would like to find out if there are any known State run broadband
connectivity services for homes? I mean government providing IP based
connectivity over grid power?If you’re referring to broadband over power lines or BPL,
Yap that exactly.
that
experiment TTBOMK died well over a decade ago. Attenuation, performance,
and interference to licensed radio users were the main factors.
Any references or existing reports on those past decade use cases you could point me too?
Much appreciated.
Noah
Broadband over power lines - Wikipedia for starters. Lots of chatter in the amateur radio community during the times it was deployed regarding severe interference, but it essentially didn't work all that way and was too expensive to deploy vs. other solutions like 3G cellular for similar or better bandwidth at the time.
I'm not aware of any BPL systems still operating over wide range. Commercial power lines are a very noisy environment and the entire plant is optimized for 50/60 Hertz, not tens of megahertz.
The technology is being used for some narrowband technology like remote meter reading and the like, but it just didn't work out for widespread use to deploy Internet to homes in the US. There are consumer-grade devices for use within a single home like X-10 remote control and plug-in Ethernet extenders, but that pretty much dies at the pole pig.
There were a few test systems in the US but they're all dead. According to the list below it may be in service elsewhere in the world, but as I understand it's typically for use within a single building.
More comprehensive list: List of broadband over power line deployments - Wikipedia
Hi Noah,
Take a look at http://www.6power.org/, lots of info.
I was the main designer of this project and technical manager.
It included a masive deployment pilot with ENDESA (several thousands of customers), one of the main electricity providers in Spain. Then commercial service was offered for a few years.
We demonstrated that the complains of radio amateurs about interferences were unfounded and provided IPv6, QoS, VoIP, triple play, etc., etc.
There were many other commercial deployments as a result of this project. The problem was that in the next years the demand for more bw was easier and cheaper to achieve with FTTH and DOCSIS.
However all the development was used for offering PLC in-home, and to allow the electricity meters to be controlled via the power line, which in my opinion is a good project success.
It may be still interesting in some remote areas if you can bring fiber to the nearest medium to low voltage transformer.
The company that designed the chip set (DS2, a Spanish company), was acquired by Marvell (https://www.marvell.com/company/newsroom/marvell-acquires-ds2-technology.html). I’m sure that they have many products (semiconductors) as a result of what we did in the project, but I don’t know the status, which are used in in-home PLC for sure. However, I’m not sure if there are many device providers using them for PLC services, CPEs, etc.
Regards,
Jordi
@jordipalet
Very topically for California is whether there would be enough bandwidth to provide remote sensors on power poles, like heat, IR shots, circuit open, etc. A couple thousand every pole or two would probably be way cheaper than undergrounding which has its own set of issue.
Mike