Broadband over Power Lines, or BPL, refers to the transmission (sending and receiving) of digital data through existing

power cables and electricity distribution infrastructures. This can be viewed as a mere variation on using television cables; instead of using television cables, though, power transmission lines are going to be used.

The Broadband Architecture

over

Power

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Transmission

The key to broadband over power lines (Broadband over Power Lines) technology lies in a long established scientific fact: radio frequency (RF) energy can be bundled on the same line that carries electrical current. Since RF and electricity vibrate on different frequencies, there's not going to be any interference between the two. As such, data packets transmitted over RF frequencies are not overwhelmed or lost because of electrical current. The Broadband over Power Lines system does not utilize the complete power grid. Electricity from power generating plants proceeds to transmission substations which distribute the current using high-voltage transmission lines carrying between 155,000 to 765,000 volts. These high-voltage lines are not suitable for data or RF transmission. The Broadband over Power Lines solution is to bypass the substations and high-voltage wires and focus on the medium-voltage transmission lines (carrying around 7,200 volts) and the transformers that convert the electrical current to 240 volts the electrical current used in households. In other words, standard fiber optic lines specifically designed for Internet transmissions are going to be used to carry data. These fiber optic lines will be connected to medium-voltage lines. Repeaters are installed at these junction points to 'repeat' the data and boost the strength of the transmission. Couplers or specialized devices are also going to be installed at the transformers to provide a data link around these. After that, the digital data will be carried down the 240-volt line that connects to the residential or office buildings' electrical outlets which become the final distribution point for the data. At this point, the residents and the office administrators have two options for Internet connectivity. They can get wireless transmitters that will wirelessly receive the signal and send the data on to computer stations or they can get Broadband over Power Lines modems for data filtering -the Broadband over Power Lines modem will screen out power line noise and let only data through then send the data onwards to the stations. The wireless transmitter or the Broadband over Power Lines modem can transmit the signal to end-users or computer stations wirelessly (which necessitate WLAN-capable devices) or through wires (which require computers connected to the data transmitter or Broadband over Power Lines modem through Ethernet cables).

Broadband over power line

Broadband over power line can be looked upon as among the best options to enhance broadband penetration in India. For this to happen, collaboration between Internet Service Providers and power companies is essential. In 2004, the US Federal government had shown interest in having an alternative for delivering Internet access, and now there are reports that the Government of India is thinking along the same lines. Both governments had focused on the same concept Broadband over Power Line (BPL)which is an old idea, but has not been exploited commercially. To put it in simple terms, BPL is nothing but being able to access the Internet using your power sockets rather than a phone line or coaxial cable. This technology can open fresh scenarios, for both power companies and consumers, but before peeking into the nitty-gritty of BPL, the present Internet scenario in the country is worth evaluating. According to a recent report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India and IMRB International, the number of Internet users in India in the claimed user category had touched 46 million in September 2007 up from 32.2 million in September 2006, which is a high 40% year-on-year growth. The statistics seem impressive but discouraging when weighed against approximately 250 million urban population and 1.1 billion national population. We need a technology that can spread deep across the length and breadth of the country with the help of existing systems. Broadband connections can be deployed using many diverse technologies, for example, fiber optics, satellite, wireless radio (Wi-Max/Wi-Fi), coaxial cable, and telephone twisted-pair (DSL). All these technologies available for broadband implementation require extensive capital investments in order to reach all homes and business in any geography, whereas broadband over power lines is the technology that allows the use of existent power line or cables as a transmission medium, not only for energy but also for telecommunication signals, which saves a lot in terms of infrastructure cost, said Dr Vishal Verma, Assistant Professor and the principal investigator of the BPL project at Delhi College of Engineering, which has been selected along with North Delhi Power Limited by the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology for carrying out investigation on deployment issues, interference studies, and other R&D on the subject of BPL. If all of its shortcomings are rectified, BPL can be an effective means of spreading Internet even in rural areas and can buttress the number of Internet users outside the metropolitan centers. An old concept BPL is a last mile technology with an old concept. It puts communication signals over the power line, which comes to your house, said Subodh Vardhan, Director-Sales and Country Head for Government & Public Safety business, Motorola India. BPL can be broadly categorized into two typesAccess BPL and In-House BPL. The Access BPL network belongs to broadband service providers. In this, the service provider with the help of some injection devices injects data signals into the medium and low voltage power distribution power network in order to provide Internet access. BPL signals may be injected onto power lines in several ways on or between different conductors. Since BPL signals

cannot usually pass through an electric distribution transformer, additional equipment is usually required to allow the data signal to bypass distribution transformers, or to regenerate data, in order to get the data signal into a consumers home. Access BPL equipment is primarily of three types, namely, injectors, repeaters, and extractors (Consumer Premises Equipment {CPE}). Both repeaters and extractors extract the data signal from power lines using a suitable method. Repeaters amplify the signal strength to carry the data signals seamlessly over the power lines for farther distances. A typical BPL signal will only propagate along a power line for 1,000 to 3,000 feet before it becomes weak or distorted to be useful. Though power lines can carry higher voltage levels for the data signals for avoiding or minimizing the use of repeaters, but with such strength of signals the power lines would act as antennas and interfere with wireless networks and radio signals in the vicinity, said Verma. After the transfer of communication signal, at the consumer premises, customer premise equipment (CPE) extracts the data signals from the lines for its connectivity to computers or any other IP enabled electronic devices. The only thing that the user has to do is plug the modem into the socket and connect it to the computer. In-House BPL makes use of indoor adapters to transmit data signals over existing interior electric wires within a home, and to connect the data signals to various appliances. In-house BPL systems use the electrical outlets available within a building to transfer information between computers and other home electronic devices and appliances which eliminate the need to install additional wires among devices. BPL technology can even make use of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) to distribute the BPL signal over a wide bandwidth using many narrowband sub-carriers. At the BPL injector, data from the Internet backbone is converted into the OFDM signal format and is then coupled onto one phase of the power line. In order to minimize contention for the channel, Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) is used with Collision Avoidance (CA) extensions. The BPL signal may be sufficiently tolerant of co-channel BPL interference to enable implementation of two or three of these systems independently on adjacent power lines. If one wishes to use Wi-Fi at home, the architecture extracts data signal with CPE and then converts it into an IEEE 802.11b Wi-Fi signal for a wireless interface in the home network. This system uses different radio frequency bands to separate upstream and downstream BPL signals, and to minimize co-channel interference with other nearby access BPL devices.

Advantage BPL The biggest advantage of BPL is its ease of use. It can be deployed in a fast and costeffective manner at the place suitable for its implementation.This technology can be very useful for deployment in multiple dwelling units wherein electricity comes in at one point and from there it goes to other parts. You do not need to put any cable or wiring [specifically] for the Internet. Secondly, if you have a laptop, you can use it wherever you want without a Wi-Fi network. The technology is cost-effective when compared to other technologies if the number of consumers per transformer is sufficiently large and contacts on power lines are thoroughly coupled. The technology should be highly cost-effective for rural areas for the last mile distribution through BPL. This technology is even considered as being secure. In BPL, the QoS mechanism guarantees different bandwidth and latency to different users and different traffic flows. It is easier to intrude on information being sent through commonly used GSM phones than it would be to tamper with data transferred over the power lines as the exact modulation used must be known to demodulate a message addressed from one user to another, which is further dependent on Signal to Noise Ratio, which changes dynamically in real time. Thus, it makes the communication more secured. Unlike Wi-Fi systems, each node is identified by its MAC address. Both consumers and operators draw benefit from the advanced network isolation features, which offer a far higher level of security than that provided by most wireless technologies. Apart from these consumer-based advantages, BPL can be used by power companies to solve their problems in the line with the help of communication signals flowing over the power signals. Other opportunities offered by the technology include automatic energy meter Reading (AMR), real-time system monitoring, preventative maintenance, voltage control, outage detection and restoration, load management on the power grid, load scheduling, load forecasting, capacitor bank control, and development of smart grids, which could add to conservation of energy and its control for the optimized use and offer more transparency in the system and would improve system reliability, service, and safety for electricity customers. So it is not only consumers who will be benefited, the service providers themselves will be more efficient and be able to provide better support.

The roadblocks Every technology has to go through some roadblocks and disadvantages through its life cycle. Some of these handicaps prove to be so daunting that the technology cannot spread its wings in commercial space. For BPL, the problems are variedtechnical, business as well as infrastructure-related. First of all, for business, Internet providers and power companies have not yet been able to break the ice in terms of partnership. In India, they are finding it rather difficult to join hands with each other owing to several reasons. Power companies want to implement this, but are asking for money. One thing, which they are not able to understand is that they will be one of the prime beneficiaries when the technology is stable.

IBM Offers Broadband, VoIP Over Power Line

IBM has introduced a new technology in India, which combines broadband internet, VoIP and electricity via a single line. The technology, called Broadband over Power Line(BPL), does not require any additional infrastucture, because it offers speedier internet access and better quality of VoIP via the already exisiting power lines, so users will be able to pay a single bill for all three services. IBM is currently in talks with various utility providers to launch the system in India, within the next few months. According to IBM Chief Architect of Advanced Network Solutions, Charlie Arteaga, BPL technology will drastically cut costs for the utility provider, and in turn, end consumers may see reduced bills for electricity as well as broadband connection. He said that even though the initial cost of the modemlike device, required for the BPL technology will cost around USD 100, it is a one- time, payment for smallerbillsinfuture. He added that the BPL Project is a part of the 'Intelligent Grid Network' which involves advanced technology to remotely monitor power meters, and individual consumption, so end consumers wont have to bother about low voltage problems, transformers or power theft anymore. Reji Kumar, Head of IBM's Enery and Uilities Communications sector said, "With the BPL technology, we aim to bridge the technology gap between rural and urban India. Many rural areas have poor, or no Internet access but this technology will change this. Even if individual rural household may not be able to afford the required modem-like device, the technology will be invaluable for schools, government hospitals, and Internet kiosks for e-governance in rural areas." He added that, in time, with growing demand, the cost of the technology will invariably climb down and if utility providers offer bundled services at the local level, the BPL will soon be an affordable option in rural as well as urban homes.