"Broadband over Powerline andthe Smart Grid in Rural Telecommunications"

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"Broadband over Powerline and the Smart Grid in
Rural Telecommunications" 

• Frank Domoney

www.powerline-technologies.com
2
The Vision

• To develop and market an advanced, scalable
  telecommunication platform
• .enabling operators in emerging economies to
  deliver a comprehensive package of IP services
• ..with minimal infrastructure investment
• .by utilising the existing electricity power
  network

3
Emerging Economies Telecom Issues

• Conventional telephony provision requires big
  investment in new lines
• DSL is also based around the telephony
  infrastructure
• Starting from a position of low Teledensity both
  telephony and Internet penetration are expensive
  to achieve Difficult to justify backbone
  development without adequate subscriber base

4
The Roeller Waverman Equations

• The Output equation models the level of output
  (GDP) as a function of the total physical capital
  stock net of telecoms capital, the total labour
  force, a variable that captures the extent of the
  rule of law, and the mobile telecoms
  penetration rate.
• The Demand equation models the level of mobile
  telecoms penetration as a function of income (the
  level of GDP per capita), mobile price (revenue
  per mobile subscriber), and the fixed-line price
  (which is revenue per fixed line subscriber).
• The Investment equation simplifies the
  Roeller-Waverman supply and investment
  equations. It assumes that the growth rate of
  mobile penetration depends on the price of
  telecoms, the geographic area, and a time trend
  term.

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Convergence

• Data and Voice
• Fixed and Mobile
• Telco and Electricity Company
• Energis
• Veba
• Telco and Railway Company
• Telco and Entertainment Company
• Telco and Municipal Authority
• Paris
• Vienna
• Telco and Electricity Company
• Quito
• Buenos Aires

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Powerline Environment
Transformer
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Powerline History (courtesy Wikipedia)

• Broadband over power lines has developed faster
  in Europe than in the United States due to a
  historical difference in power system design
  philosophies. Power distribution uses step-down
  transformers to reduce the voltage for use by
  customers. But BPL signals cannot readily pass
  through transformers, as their high inductance
  makes them act as low-pass filters, blocking
  high-frequency signals.
• So, repeaters must be attached to the
  transformers. In the U.S., it is common for a
  small transformer hung from a utility pole to
  service a single house or a small number of
  houses. In Europe, it is more common for a
  somewhat larger transformer to service 10 or 100
  houses.

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Powerline History (2)

• For delivering power to customers, this
  difference in design makes little difference for
  power distribution. But for delivering BPL over
  the power grid in a typical U.S. city requires an
  order of magnitude more repeaters than in a
  comparable European city.
• On the other hand, since bandwidth to the
  transformer is limited, this can increase the
  speed at which each household can connect, due to
  fewer people sharing the same line. One possible
  solution is to use BPL as the backhaul for
  wireless communications, for instance by hanging
  Wi-Fi access points or cellphone base stations on
  utility poles, thus allowing end-users within a
  certain range to connect with equipment they
  already have.

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Powerline History (3)

• The second major issue is signal strength and
  operating frequency. The system is expected to
  use frequencies of 10 to 30 MHz, which has been
  used for many decades by amateur radio operators,
  as well as international shortwave broadcasters
  and a variety of communications systems
  (military, aeronautical, etc.).
• Power lines are unshielded and will act as
  antennas for the signals they carry, and have the
  potential to interfere with shortwave radio
  communications. Modern BPL systems use OFDM
  modulation, which allows to mitigate interference
  with radio services by removing specific
  frequencies used.
• A 2001 joint study by the ARRL and HomePlug
  Powerline Alliance showed that for modems using
  this technique "in general that with moderate
  separation of the antenna from the structure
  containing the HomePlug signal that interference
  was barely perceptible at the notched
  frequencies" and interference only happened when
  the "antenna was physically close to the power
  lines" (however other frequencies still suffer
  from interference).

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Manassas Trial

• In October 2005, the city of Manassas began the
  first wide-scale deployment of BPL service in the
  US, offering 10 Mbit/s service for under 30 USD
  per month to its 35,000 city residents, using
  MainNet BPL technology.
• On June 16, 2006 FCC directed the Manassas BPL
  System to resolve Amateurs' interference
  complaints. The FCC minced no words in detailing
  what it wants the city and BPL operator COMTek to
  do to ensure its system complies with Part 15
  rules governing BPL systems and even hinted that
  it may shut down all or part of the system.

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US FCC Approval 3 August 2006

• STATEMENT OF FCC CHAIRMAN KEVIN J. MARTIN
• Re Amendment of Part 15 regarding new
  requirements and measurement guidelines for
  Access Broadband over Power Line Systems Carrier
  Current Systems, including Broadband over Power
  Line Systems
• In this item, we build upon our previous efforts
  to facilitate deployment of broadband over power
  line (BPL) systems while protecting existing
  spectrum users from harmful interference. It is
  my hope that our rules will allow BPL systems to
  flourish. This technology holds great promise as
  a ubiquitous broadband solution that would offer
  a viable alternative to cable, digital subscriber
  line, fiber, and wireless broadband solutions.
  Moreover, BPL has unique advantages for home
  networking because consumers can simply plug a
  device into their existing electrical outlets to
  achieve broadband connectivity. Promoting the
  deployment of broadband continues to be one of
  our top priorities and todays action is another
  step towards reaching that goal.

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Standards

• IEEE P1901 Effort Still in Negotiations 13 Oct
  2008)
• IEEE P1901 refers to the draft standard for
  "Broadband over Power Line Networks Medium
  Access Control and Physical Layer
  Specifications." The second confirmation vote for
  the IEEE P1901 In-Home proposal portion took
  place in Spain in the attempt to attain the 75
  percent needed for passage. The confirmation was
  missed by a few votes (69 percent), which was
  short of the 75 percent needed. Apparently, some
  of the voting proxies were not included in the
  voting outcome, because last-minute changes again
  occurred to the proposal, and the procedure
  dictates that proxies cannot be used if changes
  are made to the proposal after proxies are cast.
  It is difficult to say if their inclusion would
  have changed the outcome or not.

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DS2 and their Chipsets

• VALENCIA, Spain March 14 2008-- DS2, the leading
  technology innovator and global supplier of
  high-speed powerline communications technology
  today announced that a proposal originally
  co-authored by UPA, CEPCA and other IEEE members
  was selected last week as the single proposal for
  an eventual coexistence mechanism for access and
  in home Powerline Communications applications.
  The proposal which DS2 supported was approved in
  the IEEE P1901 Working Group (WG) process towards
  developing a baseline specification for Powerline
  Communications.
• One of the most important advantages of the
  coexistence proposal is to ensure that access
  systems deployed by power companies or service
  providers can share resources with any in-home
  system deployed in the same area. The proposal
  enjoyed significant consensus from the WG.

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Electricity Network
HV Transmission gt40Kv up to 100s Kv
HV - MV
Substation
MV Distribution 1Kv up to 40Kv
Distribution
LV Distribution 110v 440v
Transformer
MV Distribution 1Kv up to 40Kv
Distribution Node
MV - LV
Substation
MV-LV Transformer
MV-LV Transformer
Customers
Customers
Premises
Premises
LV Distribution 110v 440v
Customers
Premises
Customer Service Line
Customers Premises
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Current PowerGate Access Technology
PowerGate 1001 MV Modem/Repeater
200Mbit/s Max Throughput
PowerGate 1001 LV Repeater
Management Software PowerGate Commander
PowerGate 1001 LV Head-end Modem
PowerGate 102 CPE
PowerGate 101 CPE
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Customer Premises Equipment and Head End
KEY FEATURES Provides low cost CPE option for
service providers requiring only data service
access Compact plug in the wall design
with integral 10/100 Ethernet port
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Customer Premises Equipment
Comprehensive QoS architecture supports data,
VoIP and other IP media types Ethernet, USB
and analogue phone connections
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Head End
200 Mbit/s physical layer throughput Can act as
Head-end, TDM repeater or FDM repeater (two
devices) Supports data, VoIP and other media
types with comprehensive QoS architecture Integral
802.1d Bridge Ethernet 10/100 interface
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Future

• 400 Mbps Chips
• IPTV
• Adaptive Notching

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Providing the Backhaul

• BPL is an excellent solution for the final
  customer hop
• But
• Need to connect effectively and economically to
  the national network
• Conventional solution is to use BPL on the MV
  line MV line

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MV Backhaul Challenges

• Much more expensive than LV only
• Repeater needed every 300-500m
• Expensive couplers (1000s vs. 10s for LV)
• Speeds and latency are issues
• 2-3Km limit for VoIP
• Reduces overall performance for user
• Design and deployment are complex
• Potential interference with LV

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Hybrid Fibre Powerline (HFP) Overview

• New solution which combines BPL with fibre
• BPL is used on LV only
• Aerial fibre optic cable on MV poles provides
  backhaul
• Optimised for use with electricity systems based
  on overhead poles
• Use MV pole wayleave as key asset
• BPL to consumers can be combined with direct
  fibre services for business customers
• Unused fibres provide dark fibre business
  opportunity

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HFP Schematic
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HFP vs. MV BPL Backhaul
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ADSS Fibre

• Mature optical technology gt15 years old
• 100,000s of Km already installed
• Good team can install 8-10Km per day
• Installation requires only craft level skills
• With training can use local labour

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BTs Next Generation Network
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Designing the Core Network

• MetroWAND
• Plan Ring and Mesh Architecture.Highly efficient
  network design algorithms.Design rules
  incorporates fibre topology, traffic demands and
  equipment constraints.Quick analysis of
  "what-if" scenarios.Optical link layer
  performance estimations.Failure analysis with
  rerouting options.Customize Vendor equipment
  library.
• Can incorporate both Powerco and Telco links to
  establish a mesh

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Testing the Robustness of the Design

• Artifex
• Design and simulate discrete event systems using
  the Petri Net formalism.Graphical language
  object oriented and event driven ensures
  scalability to high degrees of complexity.Integra
  ted platform with tools to create, validate,
  simulate, measure and deploy the system.Dynamic
  visualization of events and states supports
  Iterative model development.Real-time and
  virtual-time simulation with full user control of
  model's execution.Simulation data analysis and
  representation.Automatic ANSI C and C code
  generation to build custom simulators and control
  software.Networking tool-kit for protocol
  simulations.

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Converged Processes Integrated System View
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TMF eTOM Process Map
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Telecommunications Application Map
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Converged Billing

• A future-proof and flexible solution for
  offering converged services is a necessity for
  operators who are invested in the next stage of
  telecommunications. Establishing a convergent
  operator to win the customers entire
  communications budget is one way of dealing with
  this situation and ensuring undisturbed streams
  of revenue. However, convergence in
  telecommunications is becoming increasingly
  complex.
• Currently the following types of convergence
  affect operators
• Line of business fixed/mobile
• Payment methods prepaid / post-paid
• Customer segments business / private
• Processing real-time / near-real-time /
  online
• Event / session type voice / IP / content
• Network IMS-enabled /PSTN / GSM / 3G mobile /
  NGN
• Business model retail / wholesale / MVNO

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Smart Grid

• SmartGrids
• Enhancing grid flexibility robustness
• Create a toolbox of proven technical solutions
• Establish interfacing capabilities that will
  allow new designs of grid equipment and new
  automation/control arrangements to be
  successfully interfaced with existing,
  traditional, grid equipment
• Ensure harmonisation of Regulatory and Commercial
  frameworks in Europe to facilitate cross-border
  trading of both power and grid services

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Infrastructure Monitoring

• Kenya Power and Light company have 4 million
  pounds of annual damage from thieves and vandals.
• Adding intelligence to the network allows active
  surveillance and reaction.

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Metering

• IBERDROLA launches a new open, public and
  standard telecommunications architecture for
  Smart Metering and Smart Grids
• IBERDROLA is coordinating the PRIME project, with
  the objective of developing an AMI infrastructure
  for automatic meter management that is public,
  open and standard
• Many companies have joined efforts to launch a
  new public, open and non-proprietary
  telecommunications architecture that will support
  the new AMM functionality and enable the building
  of the electricity networks of the future, or
  SmartGrids.

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Business Models

• Powerco as Telco competes with incumbent Telco
• Powerco rents medium to Mobile Co or ISP as fixed
  extension.
• Example Cysca and Edenor in Buenos Aires. Cysca
  pay Edenor 2 of annual revenue and 10 of
  profits.
• Powerco and Incumbent Telco maintain Monopoly on
  Telecoms

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• Thank you for your Interest.
• I am happy to take questions.
• My email address is
• frank.domoney_at_powerline-technologies.com
• My Mobile number is 44 7887 804660
• www.powerline-technologies.com