OPERA to Release Open Powerline Specification by the end of 2005

14 Oct 2005

Brussels 14th October 2005 - OPERA (Open PLC European Research Alliance) will publicly release a specification for Powerline Communications by the end of the year.

The new specification covers the PHY, MAC and equipment of broadband PLC system, making it the only open PLC standard that ensures full interoperability for PLC (or BPL) broadband access and in-building distribution systems without recourse to proprietary technologies, addressing the needs of operated networks. Utilities, Network Operators, System Integrators and Service Providers will take full advantage of this open Specification to offer distinguished services to their customers.

To meet this ambitious objective, a Specification Working Group was created in the Consortium, co-chaired by Laurent Feltin (EDF) and Victor Dominguez (DS2), with members from the main European utilities and the leading members of the PLC industry, who contribute this common standard. As a first remarkable milestone, an “OPERA Contribution to ETSI” indicating the main aspects of the technology was submitted during September to the European standardisation body ETSI, which has been responsible for enormously successful international standards (such as the GSM cellular telephony standard). The Position Paper is available in the OPERA web site (www.ist-opera.org).

The final document is in advanced status of development at the OPERA Specification Working Group, having scheduled the release of the OPERA specification by the end of December. OPERA Steering and Technical Committee agreed during its last meeting (Mannheim, 8th September) to actively cooperate with the Universal Powerline Association (UPA) in order to ensure this standard fulfils the requirements of all international markets and to promote it on a worldwide basis.

“I am very excited at the prospect of the availability of a public, open, specification”, said Laurent Feltin, of EDF, “This represents a significant step forward in broadband access over power lines. Utilities and telcos will be able to use Powerline infrastructure using standard solutions from multiple manufacturers to extend broadband access to communities who would never have had access to such services.”

Dr. Weilin Liu, of ASCOM and Eric Morel, of Schneider Electric Powerline Communications commented “PLC Equipment based on the OPERA standard will be available on the market very early in 2006. Major Access PLC manufacturers have been contributing to the developments in the OPERA technical working groups, so most of the features included in the specification are already under design.”

Filed: Oct 2005, Press, Co: DS2, ETSI, OPERA, UPA, Tech: OPERA 200 Mbps