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Gigabit Transfer Rates Over Power Lines?

nomrniceguy writes "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 kilometer, (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."

17 of 299 comments (clear)

  1. fp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    > Their system would uses repeaters placed every one kilometer.

    And I would likes to get first post.

  2. Thats nice and all... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    But does it run Linux?

  3. Re:Proof of concept? by Evil_Timmy · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's all well and good until your streaming copy of Blondes, Brunettes, and My Head (and your 'Me' time) get interrupted by an unlucky squirrel.

  4. "Modified" power lines? by Clueless+Moron · · Score: 5, Funny

    Let me guess; the modification is to glue a fibre-optic cable onto it.

  5. Also... by revery · · Score: 4, Funny

    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

    Though Amirshahi did mention that in order to provide anything faster then modem speeds to actual home users would require lowering the mean temperature of the earth to near absolute zero.

    1. Re:Also... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Thus defeating the HAM's objection of "When hell freezes over".

  6. Re:what is the point? by WolfWithoutAClause · · Score: 3, Funny

    Actually, given the negligable shielding on power lines- their scheme would radiate like crazy and pretty much *would* be gigabit wifi :-)

    --

    -WolfWithoutAClause

    "Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
  7. Re:When? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Just curious. Why the hell is it that slashdot users like to pose questions to nobody in particular about the story du jour? Do you think that the CEO of the company which will sell BB over PL is reading slashdot for the comments? Do you think he will choose to announce the availability of the product by personally replying to your comment? What is the meaning of life? Why is the sky blue? Do all the non-trivial Riemann-Zeta function zeroes lie on the line R[s]=1/2? Do neutrinos have mass? Where is Osama? What is truth? Where is the Maltese Falcon? What if I'm gay? Will anyone reply to me?

  8. Their system uses a form of compression... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    ...called Enron Encoding. Anyone know anything about it?

  9. Re:Proof of concept? by LiENUS · · Score: 2, Funny

    Your computer turns off when the power gets disconnected? How quaint...

  10. Jigabits by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    We will be just 0.21 jigabits of power shy of what's needed for time travel.

    Cool.

  11. yes, but with side effects... by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 4, Funny

    It does. Unfortunately when i plugged in my box, the Tux on my wallpaper looked scorched for some reason. I still can't understand why... :-?

  12. Why bother with power lines? by Nehi+the+Ganchark · · Score: 4, Funny

    Nicolai Tesla demonstrated electrical power could be sent wirelessly, so why bother with all the equipment? Hell, just piggyback broadband on wireless power transmission! No wires, no repeaters every km, no grid to break down -- just one huge global RF field for porn and p2p for all! I want to instantaneously download everything into my iMac from a bolt of lightning from the sky... yeah, now THAT'S the internet I want...

    Too bad we'd all have to walk around with tinfoil caps.

  13. Re:Cost effectiveness by kd5ujz · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, if your bull jumps the fence into a neighboring pasture, will its packets be considered spoofed or dropped?

    Guess you will have to watch out for that high latency johnson grass.

    --
    -William
    God is everything science has yet to explain.
  14. My System Is Better by SEWilco · · Score: 2, Funny

    My system could deliver data at close to one gigabit per second over barbed wire in ideal conditions, with speeds of hundreds of megabits per second available to home users. My system requires barbed wire to have been modified to reduce interference with the data signals.

  15. Me, I'm still waiting by Lars+T. · · Score: 2, Funny

    for high voltage over Ethernet.

    --

    Lars T.

    To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

  16. Re:BPL is not new by TeknoHog · · Score: 2, Funny
    There is a company in California,Corridor Systems, that is developing systems at 2.4 and 5.3GHz for BPL. It has 250MHz of bandwidth, and Shows VERY little interference.

    What? Somebody on /. is using the word 'bandwidth' in its original and correct meaning? Unpossible!

    It's the end of the world I say! CAT6Es and dogs living together!

    --
    Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.