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."

Comments

Proof of concept?

[BobPaul]

When they have a real world proof of concept, then I'll care...

when?

[Heem]

uhuh. And this will likely be available only in the largest metro areas first, then 5 years later in the suburbs of said metro area.. so I'm looking at a good 15 years till this gets out to the woods where I live. Oh well, I guess I should just be happy that I have cable modem available.

what is the point?

[hdd]

by the time they finish all the testing and modifying the existing power line, gigabit wifi will be readily available.

Isnt that expensive?

[Tanmi-Daiow]

To rig up all the shielding and the repeaters every kilometer. Sounds really expensive

Is it really a good idea?

[mike5904]

Instead of spending all the money to rig up all the power lines to support this technology, and potentially causing substantial problems with interference to radio communication (particularly amateur), why not just spend the money on a stronger fiber infrastructure, which presumably can support a great deal more bandwidth than this, and doesn't have the problems with causing or recieving such interference. Why not keep our data and power networks separate, and optimize both for their specific purpose?

Re:Is it really a good idea?

[quarkscat]

It would seem that just about every regulated
monopoly wants to get into broadband internet
access. In NYC, FTTP (Fiber To The Premis) is
being run to older buildings through their
sewer pipes (kindo seems appropriate for the
p0rn, though). The parent has the right idea.

A public utility (power company) that has right-
of-way access darn near everywhere would be
better served to use that same access for hanging
fiber cable, instead of the foolish waste of
money to "teach an elephant to tap-dance".
Unshielded HV power cables are one of the least
suitable transmission modes for broadband data
transfer.

Too expensive, too slow, too ...

[acoustix]

This would defintely be more expensive in the long run compared to fiber. Also there are too many unknowns. Close to one gigabit per second? How close? What about the "ideal" conditions? Are we talking about weather conditions, wire conditions, ??? Requires that power lines be modified? I'm sure the electric companies are just itching for a reason to replace all of those lines.

Fiber is already here. It's faster, immune to all interference, and constantly getting cheaper. Wait, did I mention that fiber's faster?

-Nick

Re:Plenty of Dark Fiber

[Vancorps]

You completely miss the point, the problem isn't the backbone of America, its the last mile. Big deal there is a conduit with enough dark fiber to serve an OC768 when its 75 miles from my house.

Come up with a better way to get to the house and maintain the speed of fiber while holding on to the reliability and simplicitity of copper.