Delta PC - About Powerline invisible wires homeplug networking

Powerline power line network networking audio video hidden wires

Powerline - Networking

Networks with invisible wires
Electrical power is supplied and distributed around a building at 50Hz. However, the wires are actually capable of carrying a range of other frequencies which can be 'tuned-in' using appropriate equipment. Powerline technology takes advantage of this unused bandwidth of the electrical wiring in the office or home.

The PowerLine device plugs into the electrical socket and draws power for the device. At the same time, it sends data signals down the power cord. A second PowerLine device can then be placed in any electrical outlet in the building to receive the signal. Now any Ethernet device (network computer, printer, camera, internet cable/DSL modem) can connect to the PowerLine Ethernet port and create a network. Range on Powerline can be expected to be 100m or more. Generally any circuit working on the same electricity meter will provide a good connection.

Is it Quick and Reliable Enough?
The technology has been in existence for a few years but early versions were somewhat unreliable and fairly slow. Continuous development of the technology has, however, disposed of both the reliability problem and speed issue. In fact in recent trials the powerline adaptors were shown to be quicker than typical speeds achieved using wireless networking.

Speed Test
We decided to do a simple back-to-back speed test comparing 14Meg Powerline, 85Meg Powerline (called Powerline Turbo) and 54Meg (11g) Wifi. The results were very interesting. For the purpose of the experiment we did a simple test involving transferring a 25MegaByte file between a server and a Windows PC. In this way we would try to emulate a typical working network test. To be fair all round the mains used for the Powerline devices was clean and the Powerline adapters were plugged directly into ring main sockets (not extensions). The wifi devices were Senao Prism chipset parts next to each other on the same desk - the wifi signal was excellent. Powerline power line network networking audio video hidden wires

PL14 - 14Meg Powerline adapter: 7.5Mb/s
PL85 - 85Meg Powerline Turbo adapter: 25Mb/s
54g Wifi - 14Mb/s

Interesting yes?! So this shows that 54g wifi was a long way from 54Meg performance even with a perfect wifi signal! When we moved one of the radio devices into the next room the wifi speed went down by over 30%! It also shows that Powerline turbo is at least as good as perfect 11g wifi and, in our test, was actually nearly twice as fast. It also shows that 14Meg Powerline is really quite good and certainly up to the task of most Small Office or home tasks such as shared internet access and simple file sharing between PC's.

The reliability too is, in our experience, far superior to wireless technology with very few (none in our experience!) network dropouts due to either poor signal strength or poor quality.

For Audio too.......

Similar Powerline Technology can be used to distribute Audio signals around a building too.
The original sound can be from MP3 files, internet radio and other digital sources, or from a hi-fi system, cd player, etc.

For more information about Powerline Audio or to jump to our online store click below


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