Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Australian Communications Authority & Others ON BPL

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 11:21:12 -0400

Australian Communications Authority & Others ON BPL

Oct 07, 2003

A variety of developments on the broadband over powerline (BPL) front add up to a
very mixed bag for the emerging technology. Trials continue to take place, and a
startup BPL technology vendor has announced what could be a significant
breakthrough. On the other hand, RF interference issues continue to dog the
technology, both in the United States -- where more trials mean more opportunities
for opponents to look for problems -- and overseas where the Australian government
has taken a wary stance in regard to interference with radio services it considers
vital.

One of the new trials to emerge is being conducted by Southern Telecom, the
telecommunications subdivision of Atlanta-based electrical utility Southern
Company [NYSE: SO]. Southern is using equipment from Andover, Mass.-based Amperion
Inc. The vendor's Amperion Connect solution (see BBR's March 11 issue) delivers
broadband data over medium voltage power lines at speeds of up to 20 Mbps (shared
throughput). The system uses a wireless link to inject signals onto the power
lines at the substation, and small Wi- Fi repeaters strung along the power lines
themselves to provide the last link to the customer's PC.

BPL's Salvation at Hand?

But it's another BPL trial that could turn out to be the big news. (If it pans
out, and that's not definite yet.)
In California, utility Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) [NYSE: PCG] has conducted a
simple technology trial of a PLC solution from Santa Rosa-based startup Corridor
Systems. Corridor's technology looks like Amperion's in some ways. For example, it
also uses Wi-Fi to get signals from the medium voltage power grid to the end
user's computer.

But in other ways, Corridor's system is like no other BPL technology ever seen.
For one thing, it delivered blistering speeds, achieving throughput of an
astonishing 216 Mbps, which the company believes is not only the highest speed
ever achieved over an actual medium voltage powerline, but a full "four times
faster than has been claimed with any previous technology."

The other benefit is the potential to remove emissions from the HF bands currently
being hotly defended by the amateur radio community. Instead of those frequencies
being used by most other BPL technologies, Corridor CEO David Gaw says "we're
using 5 GHz on the line." This means that the emissions from his system aren't at
ham frequencies, but in the unlicensed 5 GHz ISM band.
The solution promises to neatly solve two of BPL's biggest problems with a single
stroke. First, the technology has tended to lag behind other broadband options in
speed -- to the point where critics have taken to calling it "midband." A
blistering 216 Mbps, with latency of less than 500 milliseconds, should give the
technology room to work with. At the same time, using higher frequency signals on
the line moves the unavoidable line emissions into a different band, away from the
one where current emissions are generating so much controversy.

"There is a fundamental relationship between those frequencies and higher speed,"
says Gaw. "Higher frequencies, if you can engineer them to work, offer advantages
both on the interference and emissions issue but also higher speeds." Gaw says his
company has worked for more than two and a half years to achieve the "non-trivial
things to make all this viable."

Between the speed, the appeasement of the ham radio community -- which has really
dug in its heels on this issue -- and additional benefits like leveraging the mass
economies of scale of Wi-Fi chipsets, Corridor could have something enormous on
its hands.

But don't pop the champagne corks just yet. For one thing, the PG&E deployment was
the most basic of technology tests. It took place between two computers over a
single, quarter mile segment of line. That's a far cry from a full scale
deployment with more complex power grid topology and plenty of users contesting
the bandwidth. Of course Gaw believes the technology can be scaled up. "We're
building a business around that," he says, "so we fully intend to do that and we
don't see any real inhibitors to doing that at this point."

The thornier problem is that there isn't a lot of junk spectrum out there just
waiting to absorb BPL emissions. While Corridor's solution would spare the hams,
there are also technologies using or planning to use those 5 GHz bands -- 802.11a
for example. While Corridor's technology shows that we at least have some degree
of control over where we dump BPL's RF trash, it has to go somewhere. And pretty
much anywhere you look, you'll find existing users demanding that it not be dumped
in their back yard.

Australian Government Skeptical

In a move that is hard to interpret as good news for BPL technology in Australia,
the government's telecom regulator has expressed concerns about radio interference
issues and suggested that Australia may need to hold such systems to tighter
standards than the United States or other countries.

The Australian Communications Authority's (ACA) Spectrum Planning Team,
Radiofrequency Planning Group has issued a paper on BPL titled Broadband Powerline
Communication Systems, A Background Brief. The paper provides a primer on BPL
technology, including spectrum interference issues, and an overview of regulatory
actions taken in other countries.

The purpose of the paper is to provide background for some kind of regulatory
approach as BPL is beginning to become an issue for Australia. Equipment is
already being offered for small area networking over home powerlines -- equipment
similar to HomePlug technology in the United States. The paper also reveals that
an unidentified Australian electrical supply authority has approached the ACA to
discuss a potential trial of BPL as a last-mile technology.

The RF emissions of in-house networks are much lower than those for last-mile
applications -- thanks to the lower power levels needed over short, in-house
distances. However, the report says that the "potential risk to HF
radiocommunications services from the widespread use of broadband powerline
communication systems" are "associated with in-house applications as well as last
mile applications."
On the in-house side, the report suggests that in-home terminals presently being
marketed in Australia are unlikely to meet the international CISPR 22 standard,
created by the International Special Committee on Radio Interference. Changes to
CISPR 22 are currently being debated.

However, the larger issue is last-mile applications. Here, the report takes a
close look at current U.S. activity on the BPL front, particularly the FCC's
ongoing inquiry and the Part 15 rules under which present BPL equipment operates.

Notably, the report argues that, even if the U.S. should decide to go ahead with
large-scale BPL, what works for the United States may not work in Australia. It
cites differences in the structure and engineering of the power grids in the two
countries, and raises the idea that emission limits considered acceptable in the
United States may be unacceptable when applied to Australia.

"While as a general principle, the ACA seeks where possible to align its
management arrangements in Australia with those in place in other regions," the
report states, "this is not always possible or appropriate. Europe and the USA
have greater degrees of urbanisation than Australia and the weighting placed on
the protection of HF services in those countries may well be less than that
required in Australia."

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