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| Researchers see gigabit data
over power lines |
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| BY REUTERS |
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[Washington | Reuters News Service, 7 January
2005] - Engineers at Penn State
University said on Wednesday they had found a way for power lines to
transmit data to homes at rates far faster than high-speed Internet
connections from cable and telephone companies.
Broadband service over power lines has been highly touted by
equipment makers and federal regulators as a possible competitor to
cable and telephone services that handle nearly all of the 30
million US residential broadband connections.
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... | | But
despite dozens of trials, few electric utilities have attempted to
sell the service to customers, citing cost and technical problems.
The Penn State researchers said while the technology would improve,
lowering the costs of power-line broadband would remain challenging.
Power-line broadband systems available today typically
promise data speeds of roughly one megabit to three megabits per
second, similar to cable and digital subscriber line, or DSL,
service.
The Penn State engineers, Pouyan Amirshahi and Mohsen
Kavehrad, estimated in a research paper released Wednesday that
their system could deliver data at close to one gigabit per second
over medium-voltage electrical lines in ideal conditions, with
speeds of hundreds of megabits per second available to home users.
Their system would uses repeaters placed every one kilometre,
(0.62 miles) and requires power lines to have been modified to
reduce interference with the data signals. The engineers said their
estimates were based on computer models, and that the data speeds
available in a real-world version would depend on how many repeaters
a power company used.
The Penn State study was funded with a grant from AT&T,
which has taken part in prior trials of power-line broadband.
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| Copyright 2004
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