The HomePlug Powerline Alliance, an industry consortium, is inviting utility companies, service providers, network operators, technology developers and others to participate in the development process for a Broadband over Powerline (BPL) specification. As presented by HomePlug board members at a recent general meeting of the IEEE, the initial step in the process will be the creation of a HomePlug Market Requirements Document (MRD). The MRD will set the goals for the BPL specification, which will define the underlying technologies used to create products that deliver broadband communications to homes and businesses through existing power lines.
Having already developed and released HomePlug 1.0, the world’s only standard for powerline communications, the Alliance is currently finalizing its specification for HomePlug AV, a high-speed networking technology designed specifically to meet the needs of digital multimedia networks in the home. Building on this foundation, the Alliance is expanding the scope of its development efforts into the BPL arena. http://www.homeplug.org
