Motorola to Marry BPL and Wireless

prostoalex writes "Motorola is combining Intellon broadband-over-powerline chips with its own Canopy wireless systems to create an end-to-end broadband delivery system, where last mile delivery would be covered by wireless and broadband pipe would belong to electric utility. HomePlug AV standard will offer 200 Mbps downstream speed."

Re:Here come...

[Trip Ericson]

Um, do you have any idea what you're saying? BPL has been licensed to use frequencies from just above AM radio all the way up into the middle of TV Channel 5. (that's about 2MHz-80MHz) I don't know about you, but I watch TV with an antenna, and I already get tons of impulse/electrical noise on channels 2-6 as it is, not to mention an FM radio station on 88.3 trashes channel 6. It's already been proven that electrical devices that DON'T have BPL in them can cause massive amounts of interference to signals (try turning on a hair dryer or an electric paper shredder while watching the lower channels), and the introduction of BPL will only make this interference worse and constant. In addition, shortwave radio, which the rest of the world still uses, covers from 3MHz-30MHz.

And don't think that just because you have cable it's not going to affect you--cable leaks are well-known and proven to be problematic (see AVSForum.Com and the fiasco involving WBBM-DT on channel 3 in Chicago). Cable leaks allow for not only interference from OTA TV and FM station in the cable line (I've seen it before) but also allow for additional outside electrical noise. Regular electrical noise is one thing, but I've seen that and I've seen two-way interference, and let me tell you that two-way interference isn't fun (walkie-talkies). Instead of having just lines or dots in the picture, the whole picture goes away and the sound becomes that of the two-way.

You would think that since I live in a rural area that I'd be for this, and when I first heard about it, I was. But I think people I know would much rather be able to watch TV than have high-speed internet. (And yes there are a good number of people who still rely on OTA TV here)

Note how I didn't mention ham radio anywhere in there.

ARRL supports it!

[dtmos]

The Motorola BPL system, the Powerline LV Solution [motorola.com], entirely avoids transmitting data over medium-voltage (MV) lines (the ones commonly seen along roads). It uses the Motorola Canopy wireless system for this link. The Powerline LV Solution only sends data over the neighborhood low-voltage (LV) lines, after the transformer, using HomePlug. This greatly reduces the potential for interference. Further, the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL [arrl.org]), the organization of amateur radio operators in the U.S., was consulted during its development, had its interference issues addressed, and supports the Motorola Powerline LV Solution [arrl.org].

Re:Future Internet delivery

[fireboy1919]

Yeah, you'd have to do that somewhere around the step down transformers that deliver the last mile...isn't there something there that you could tie into?

Oh, right.

There's a large, weather-proof step-down transformer that you could put a fiber-to-AC based router into.

Except when you don't because you're sending the signal out to reach two people out on the ranch. Fortunately, there's a whole hierarchy of the things, and you could put your switch at whatever level of the hierarchy is feasible for sustainable service.

Remember, we're talking about what to do about the last mile. If you've got so many people that they're starting to have collisions, you can afford to put in more routers. This really addresses the problem of what to do when you don't.

Same thing here, at Schaumburg to evaluate Canopy

[Tisha_AH]

I agree totally, I was up in Schaumburg a year ago to evaluate Canopy (I work for a VAR of theirs). I found the product to be balky, overly sensnsitive to multipath interference, using an antiquated modulation scheme and requiring rather large reflector antennas to get the signal more than a few miles. The technology is there. I also work with similar products from other manufacturers who can give a good 10-20 mile radio shot up to 155 Mbps. Motorola has been doing it's best to come up with more marketing and applications uses for Canopy. In the building, talking to their folks you can feel their desperation.