September 20, 2005
Technology in Focus features analysis of recent technology news articles, by the consultants in Technology Group, IDA. This is the top pick of the month from a list of 10-20 news analysis compiled monthly.
Measuring the Costs of Broadband Services, Microwaves & RF, Jul 2005
by Sim Ban Teck, Senior Consultant, Network Technologies
Broadband Power Line (BPL) Communication has once again surfaced as the most economical access technology against the other First/Last Mile Access options, as claimed by most PLC technology vendors. However, its interference to other equipment in the HF and low-VHF frequency band has again been proven to be unacceptable by an external study conducted on the BPL equipment using Direct-Spectrum communication in the trial system hosted by the power utility United Illuminating (New Haven, CT, www.uinet.com) in Shelton, CT.
Looking back at the history of PLC technology, which has originally surfaced as an alternative for LAN communication using power line communications within the home or office environment, it was already well understood that there were then RF interference issue with the ham(amateur) radio community. With its extension into BPL, which highlights the extension beyond the Low Voltage (LV) segment (synonymous to the last inch distribution) to the Medium Voltage (MV) segment (synonymous to the core or trunk distribution) of the Power Cabling segments, its interference issues has raised ever more concerns by the ham radio community in the States and other parts of the world.
Nearer to the Asia countries, we have also witnessed a less than enthusiastic response towards BPL, with the freq of operation restricted to less than 40MHz, although the States and the European community are pushing to 80MHz.
Closer to our borders, Malaysia has indicated that there was no actual trials as yet and the local utility company has put a stop to their own study, raising some major deployment challenges such as the large transformer density (250-500:1 transformer) that is needed to support each segment and highlighting their technical study conducted within a lab environment which exhibit high noise level from 1 to 30MHz, making it difficult to achieve good enough bandwidth beyond the 20MHz segment. However, the utility company has indicated that they are still open to partners for the technology implementation. This clearly alludes to the fact that there exists other business success risk which still hinders the PLC adoption.
In Japan, things has taken a slight twist in that although BPL was not generally favoured, internal use of PLC has been proposed for FTTB. TEPCO in Japan is one of the key utility company that has deployed both fiber and power lines as the last mile access for their utility customers, using the model of utility cum ISP business model. They are currently testing out the radiation emission from the 2 to 30 kHz.
With an already 78% internet penetration, Korea is one unique country that is always searching for ways to lower its broadband access cost. PLC has emerged as one possible option for the big 2nd carriers like Hanaro Telecom and Thrunet. Lately, Hanaro Telecom is also partnering with external vendor to investigate into the PLC product development to better control the noise at specific frequency band for the PLC. Majority of the application on Power Lines Communications are mainly for AMR (Auto Meter reading) and other forms of narrowband application instead of broadband access. However, with the readiness of higher Mbps PLC component, it would serve to excite the Koreans as they move forward with their Broadband Network Convergence (BNC) vision.
Based on observation from the recent PLC Asia seminar conducted by IBC in Kuala Lumpur, the general feel was than the PLC will likely hit the market in a bigger fashion in the year 2006, when the development for 200/300Mbps or beyond product gets more competitive in terms of its interference issues as it also awaits for a more firm standards towards end 2005. The current PLC specification is still in the process of being finalised and DS2 has already made a name for itself as the defacto PLC standards because of its widespread usage by most PLC vendors, e.g. Ascom. There are various technology implementations currently being evaluated and researched by various vendors on PLC, which includes DMT, OFDM and DFB (Digital Filter Bandwidth) and it is likely that the product would be ready by the year 2006 for commercial deployment.
Some words about the writer
Sim Ban Teck is a senior consultant with the Network Technologies within the Technology Group in IDA. His area of interest is on emerging broadband access technology for the Last Mile.
Disclaimer:
The Info-Communications Development Authority of Singapore ("IDA") makes no warranties as to the suitability of use for any purpose whatsoever of any of the information, data, representations, statements and/or any of the contents herein nor as to the accuracy or reliability of any sources from which the same is derived (whether as credited or otherwise). IDA hereby expressly disclaims any and all liability connected with or arising from use of the contents of this publication. This analysis does not necessarily represent or contain the views of IDA nor the Government of the Republic of Singapore and should not be cited or quoted as such. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Copyright 2004 Info-communications Development Authority of Singapore. Other than for purposes of circulation WITHIN your organisation/company, this article (or any part thereof) must not be reproduced or redistributed without the prior permission of IDA.