Power line communications are the future: DS2

2007/6/7
By Erika Wang
The China Post

The future of home technology is power line communications, said the co-founder of Design of Systems on Silicon S.A. (DS2) during yesterday's Computex Taipei forum on next-generation networks CompuForum-NGN.
DS2 is the world's leading supplier of silicon and software for Power line Communications (PLC) and Universal Powerline Alliance (UPA) compliant 200 Mbps power line technology that enables home networking and broadband access over power line, coaxial cable, and telephone wires.

With the new concept of the multimedia home, customers now want to use services, applications, and content basically everywhere in their homes, said Victor Dominguez Richards, DS2 director of Strategy & Standards and of Business Development.

This includes sharing Internet access and the same printer with other computers as well as being able to watch video on demand and computer-stored photos on every television set in the house, he added.

PLC technology uses the existing electricity cable infrastructure to carry voice and data signals for Internet, telephony, video transport and other applications.

"Just plug in the device and suddenly you have a multimedia network everywhere you go in your home. That's the beauty of power line," said Dominguez.

The technology works by transmitting high-frequency data signals through the same power cable network in a way that allows the cables to carry electrical power and high-speed data simultaneously.

According to Dominguez, power line technology's market drivers are video on demand, high-speed gaming, downloaded music and photo viewing.

Power lines are designed to fill a very specific and growing niche of "multimedia, video-specific, full-home coverage," he acknowledged.

When compared to wireless technology, for example, Dominguez said that while wireless technology provides great mobility, it lacks the guarantee of coverage and quality that power lines provide.

DS2's vision is a compromise. "We see a world ... where you have power lines as a backbone in a home ... for full home coverage high-speed quality, and then you have islands of Bluetooth or Wi-Fi or ultra-wide band ... around to give you mobility," said Dominguez.

Power lines' advantages over telephone lines are also considerable, especially when utilized as an indoors communication solution. "The huge advantage of power lines is that you have sockets and plugs everywhere in your home and that is the same everywhere in the world," he explained.

"I have never seen a house without at least an electricity outlet...so it's ubiquitous, easy to access, and that's not the case with telephone plugs, where normally you have one or two in your home," he added.

Founded in 1998, DS2 pioneered in the industry with the introduction of its 200 Mbps chipsets, creating the fastest and highest performance solution for simultaneous data, digital, audio and high-definition video transmission. Headquartered in Valencia, Spain, the company also has offices in California, Japan and Taiwan.

Two industry groups, the Universal Powerline Association (UPA) and the European Union consortium OPERA (Open PLC European Research Alliance) have adopted DS2 technology in support of multi-vendor inter-operable, certified product.