Powerline Technology Primer

The Power of Powerline

  • Powerline is ubiquitous
    • Global universal delivery of energy
    • Nearly 100% electrification throughout the world
    • Indoor and outdoor (on premises and access)
  • Offers an elegant 'no new wires' solution
  • But it was NOT designed for or friendly to communications

Navigating the Challenges of Powerline
The natural appeal of leveraging existing powerlines for communications can easily be offset by the challenges of satisfying various requirements while contending with this difficult medium. The Greek mythological characters, the SIRENS, provide an excellent allegory to powerline communications. The SIRENS played their beautiful music luring ships into dangerous waters. The ships “crashed into the rocks.”

  • Connectivity
  • Speed/Throughput
  • Distance
  • Large # of nodes
  • Multimedia & QoS
  • Regulation compliance
  • Security
  • Transformers
  • Integration
  • Cost to Commercialize

The Powerline is a hostile environment for data communications experiencing

  • frequency dependent attenuation that varies up to 60 dB over time
  • impulsive noise from dimmers, ballasts, variable speed motors, power supplys, etc.
  • reflections from non-terminated points resulting in nulls and distortion.

To properly address these challenges, a high integrated technology approach is required to insure that none of the requirements are compromised.

Adaptive Networks has painstakingly researched and successfully navigated the dangerous waters of Powerline Communications for over 18 years. Our technology and products are the fruit of an attack at the roots of the challenges in the powerline environment. The route we took to solutions and products was systemic rather than expedient, integrated rather than episodic--which is reflected in our products being selected as ISO and IEC standards as well as having been successfully implemented in a variety of industrial and commercial applications.

Adaptive Networks Powerline Technology Elements An examination of the integrated technology elements of our AN1000, AN192, AN48 & PowerStream™ products.