At this week's CES show in Las Vegas, powerline communications (PLC) networking advocates got a nice win as the IEEE announced that it has released the P1901 Draft Standard for powerline communications.
Targeted to meet the needs of all applications for PLC devices, including Smart Energy and SmartGrid, plug-in electrical vehicles and audio/video distribution, the new IEEE standard covers both Medium Access Control and Physical Layer.
Getting to this point was reportedly quite an undertaking. Before and during the meeting it had in Tel Aviv, the IEEE P1901 Working Group reviewed and resolved more than 3,000 comments it received on the initial draft of the standard.
In related news, the HomePlug Powerline Alliance announced that it will finalize its HomePlug "Green PHY" (GP) specification, which was developed with input from major utility companies, including Consumers Energy, Duke Energy, Pacific Gas & Electric, and Southern California Edison, in Q1 2010. HomePlug GP is a low power powerline networking specification targeting SmartGrid applications such as HVAC, smart meters and home appliances.
For more:
- see the IEEE release here
- see the SmartGrid release here
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