IEEE Brings Groups Together for P1901 Standard Work
The IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) is helping the HomePlug Powerline Alliance and the HD-PLC Alliance work together more effectively.
HomePlug’s membership includes Atheros Communications, Cisco, Comcast and Motorola. The group creates specs and certification logo programs for using powerlines for home networking and Smart Grid applications.
Initial work is focused on a joint certification program for the Inter-System Protocol (ISP) in the IEEE P1901 standard that allows coexistence between Power Line Communications (PLC) technologies. The coexistence standard allows physical devices that are compliant with different variants of the IEEE P1901 standard to operate without interference, enabling high-speed communications across shared electric power connections.
The ISP certification testing is now being finalized with an interoperability plugfest scheduled for May to certify the first compliant silicon chips.