First draft for IEEE P1901 broadband over power lines created

PISCATAWAY, USA: The IEEE P1901 Working Group has agreed to circulate for approval the first draft for IEEE's first PHY/MAC standard related to Broadband Over Power Lines (BPL), IEEE Std 1901™, "Draft Standard for Broadband over Power Line Networks: Medium Access Control and Physical Layer Specifications."

At the recent meeting in Tokyo, Japan, the Working Group has agreed with more than 82 percent majority vote to convert the working specifications into the first IEEE P1901 BPL draft standard and to conduct a vote on whether the Draft is ready to go to Sponsor Ballot. Votes and comments are due by September 14.

"This is a major milestone," says Jean-Philippe Faure, chair of the IEEE P1901 Working Group. "Main development is completed and finalization now starts through successive rounds of circulations for vote and comment."

The draft is based on field proven technologies using FTT and Wavelet OFDM modulation schemes. It provides high performance and robust communications with privacy and high quality of service.

"This is a comprehensive specification that addresses all BPL applications including LANs, Smart Grid networks and Broadband access," says Faure. "The draft fully meets the over 400 technical requirements developed by the experts in these areas. The coexistence and interoperability part ensures all equipment and devices used on BPL networks are compatible." The draft also provides seamless integration with other communication media, such as Wi-Fi and Ethernet.

The Working Group will next meet in Boston, Mass., on 13-16 October 2009.

IEEE P1901™ is sponsored by the Standards Committee of the IEEE Communications Society.

Provisions for MAC/PHY and Inter-System Protocol approved

PISCATAWAY, USA: The IEEE working group devoted to developing a standard for Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) met in Las Vegas in May, where it devoted its attention to the work of its technical subgroups.

The working group is developing a new standard, IEEE P1901, "Standard for Broadband over Power Line Networks: Medium Access Control and Physical Layer Specifications." When completed, the project will present a standard for high speed (>100 Mbps at the physical layer) communication devices via alternating current electric power lines, so-called Broadband over Power Line (BPL) devices.

Technical Subgroup 2 (TSG2), which is dedicated to FFT and Wavelet MAC/PHY, presented thirteen revised chapters of the draft Standard on MAC/PHY layers and security.

Technical Subgroup 4 (TSG4), which is dedicated to coexistence, presented a draft annex describing the Inter-System Protocol (ISP) that enables various BPL devices and systems to share communication resources (frequency/time) when installed in a network with common electrical wiring.

ISP will allow P1901-compliant devices and ITU-T G.hn-compliant devices to co-exist. The protocol provides configurable frequency division for Access and time division for in-home with a granularity compatible with the Quality of Service (QoS) requirements of the most demanding audio and video applications.

The Working Group approved TSG2's revisions by an 83 percent majority, and unanimously approved TSG4's ISP annex.

The technical subgroups continue to hold weekly teleconferences as they further develop the first official draft of the P1901 standard. TSG2 will also hold a face-to-face meeting during the week of 15-19 June in Fukuoka, Japan.