IEEE drops support for rival standard from powerline LAN spec
1901 won't be G.hn compatible after all
Regcast training : Hyper-V 3.0, VM high availability and disaster recovery
The IEEE-backed attempt to define a universal standard for powerline networking has dropped plans to ensure compatibility with rival world home LAN standard G.hn.
Late last year, members of the IEEE P1901 working group voted to include G.hn, a standard being developed under the auspices of the International Telecom Union (ITU), within the 1901 specification.
But at a meeting held in Boston, Massachusetts this week, the proposed addition of a G.hn-compatible physical and transport layers - PHY and MAC - were removed from the draft specification. Development of the G.hn MAC and PHY will stop.
In some respects, it's a sensible move. G.hn compatibuility was added at the behest of companies who are, by and large, keener on G.hn than 1901.
G.hn uses a single PHY specification to allow networking traffic to be transported over mains wiring, phone cable and coax lines. By contrast, 1901 contains two, incompatible PHY specs, the better to accommodate different working group members' preferences. Both are optional. One implements FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) modulation to ensure compatibility with existing powerline kit that meets the HomePlug standard - which is why the HomePlug Powerline Alliance (HPA) is so keen on 1901. The second PHY adds wavelet compression. It's not HomePlug compatible, but is widely believed to enable more robust, faster data transfer. It comes from Panasonic.
Adding support for G.hn would involve adding a third PHY combo, and clearly the P1901 members have decided two is enough.
Besides, if 1901 offers G.hn support, what's to stop potential backers from equipping kit only with G.hn but still claiming compatibility with both standards? Or, for that matter, bothering with 1901 at all?
Now they will have to, and the P1901 group has ensured its standard is less likely to become in irrelevance, at least for home networking. The standard also takes in routing broadband feeds over mains cabling into the home. ®
Special Report
G.hn-ing for gigabit How the next-gen home LAN standard war was won
COMMENTS
The only way....
.... to make these products fully acceptable and EMC compliant is to limit their usage to cabling that is inherently balanced. In other words, NOT mains wiring, which has none of the characteristics of properly designed network cabling.
Powerline networks is a noisy technology
Powerline networks is a very bad idea ! The reason is that the data stream is sendt between the PLC units on unshielded mains wiring. Unshielded mains wiring are not designed for frequencies between 2 and 30 MHz (which HomePlug units uses). HomePlug units interfere and "breaks down" licensed radio communications and blocks wireless devices like computer keyboards etc.
EMC-tests has shown that HomePlug units does not meet EN55022 standard, and as such they will be removed from your property if they interfere with nearby radio communications and radio receivers. Huge warnings against this poweline technology have been stated, take a look at what EMC-experts is writing about it:
http://www.compliance-club.com/PLT/PLT%20book.pdf
Ofcom in the UK are also about to be taken to court by the RSGB for allowing this kind of disturbing technology to be sold legally:
http://www.rsgb.org/news/pla_dispute_law.php
My advice is to use CAT-5 wiring or Wifi 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz in stead.
The EMC experts are pretty clear on this issue: technology that blocks huge amounts of the HF-spectrum (which is already occupied by licenced services like amateur radio, shortwave broadcast, DRM, aironautical and maritime HF services) must be abandon.
Roar Dehli
Norway
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
Requirements Checklist for Choosing a Cloud Backup and Recovery Service Provider
Data control in the cloud
Cloud based data management
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
