Powerline Communications

Potential Extensions to Digital PowerLine Technology

There are many possible extensions to the Digital PowerLine model. Those mentioned in reviews and technical journals include "the wired home" and remote customer information services.

Since Digital PowerLine creates a LAN type environment by running IP, people could theoretically control all of the appliances in their home from their PC or a remote device. Each home on the neighborhood LAN would operate as a sub-network of the LAN and each electrical outlet could be treated as a node on that sub-network.

The Nortel web site predicts, "It could also be feasible to have an Internet address for every plug in the house, through which you could e-mail, for example: ‘fridge@home’ and study the picture relayed by the video camera to see what shopping you require; or you could remotely turn the lights off and the burglar alarm on using your own password."

Remote services such as remote metering have already been tested under this model and many more services are possible. Because the service provider can keep track of electricity and bandwidth usage via the network, customers will also be able to monitor their usage, reliably predict billing and keep an eye on household usage (i.e. the teenager’s phone usage).