March 4, 2004
Broadband over Power Lines
Lynn Kiesling noted Cinergy's announcement of a new broadband data transmission service using in place power lines and Brian Doss suggests that
Seems like a major kick in the jimmy to the cable companies, though, if it takes off.Well, it is one small step in a couple of right directions.
First:
Faster speeds (in excess of 3 mbps) at lower monthly cost than other broadband servicesMore bits per second at a lower cost is a good thing. Note, though, that 'in excess of 3 mbps' might mean just 4 mbps and it might mean 20 mbps. It will likely depend a lot on your location and how many other folks you might be sharing the outside power lines with. Oh, and 3, 4 or even 20 mbps hardly qualifies as broadband. I don't like to think of these modest speeds as true broadband though compared to that old dial up modem they seem fast.
Broadband? Think 100 mbps as the bar.
Second:
Local area networking from all power outlets over existing electrical wiringThis is cool but not new. I have been doing this for about six months now. The downside is that I get less then 10 mbps over these connections compared to 100 Mbps in the rooms that I have wired to a 100 mbps switch. But this is just fine if I am browsing, blogging etc. It is not near good enough if I am trying to move a 1.5 gigabyte file (think 2-3 hour live concert uncompressed) from one machine to another.
Third:
Upload and download access at the same speedsThis is a huge failing of current cable and telco provided low bandwidth "broadband' services. The slow uplink speed that the cable companies provide drives them to prohibit from implementing servers on their home networks (well, this is probably also driven by a fear that user supplied content might just compete with their other services) and makes it near impossible for users to engage in any interactive activities that require higher simultaneous bandwidth to be useful. For instance, full screen interactive video requires about 440 kilobits per second both directions to get to a minimal level of usability. Hopefully, Cinergy will not incorporate onerous use restrictions into their acceptable use policy.
Again, though, these are but small steps in the right direction. Your phone and cable companies are not providing the service levels that they could and you are being short changed. Just as an example you consider why they are not expounding a vision like this?
Posted by Steve on March 4, 2004check your facts on broadband
for example a t-1 is only 1.5 mbps, ds3 is about 54 mbps, and oc3 is roughly 155mbps
cable and dsl are both between 300-750kbps depending on your service price.
i have left a link at the bottom to one of many providers of such carrier class connections as T-1,ds3, or oc3 to validate this statement.
otherwise I would agree 3-4 mbps is not broadband it is a carrier class connection.
something a broadband provider would use to reach a cell of a particular customer base as apposed to a single customer which is called an EU (end user) class connection.
of course at the unvailing of this tech. that will cease to be true (how do you support as a carrier with a connection that is only as fast as a single EU for example 1000 customers running 3-4mbps supported by only a single 155mbps ? ) naturally carrier class and EU class will require redefinition.
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Posted by Alan Henderson at August 18, 2004 11:28 PMThough I also notice you say you have already been running a bpl bridge/lan in your home...did you contruct the RT or did you purchase it .......where from/how?.........I only ask because this has been a concept I have nursed for a long time, having the ability to construct a theory of operation which has turned out to be mostly accurate. believing it to be mostly fantasy I ignored it and never sought it through to fruition now i find I'm behind the curve. Around the mid 90's there was a post through popular science which stirred those thoughts and have left me eager for it's release ever since. A illegal self medication and then a 5.5 year service in the marines consumed my time and quelled my creative juices. It's a toy of unimaginable must have quality. Now I would like to see it through.
Posted by alan at August 18, 2004 11:43 PMI know that this article is a little outdated, but I just came across it today, and I want to clear up a few facts. DSL IS broadband, and a 100 megabit lan is a baseband, hence 100base-t, notice the base, that means baseband. Baseband is one signal per line, but broadband is multiple signals per line. So to dissagree with you all, DSL is broadband. So even that little 300 kilobit line IS broadband, even if you don't think it is broadband
Posted by Chance at July 5, 2005 7:14 PM
