January 23, 2015

Overview of broadband
powerline communications

Jean-Philippe Faure, CEO Progilon

Senior consultant at Panasonic System Networks
Director Technology Standards at HD-PLC Alliance

Biography of Mr Jean-Philippe Faure

Founder and CEO of Progilon, consultancy company
operating in the Power Line Communications sector since
1994
IEEE activities
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Founding Chair of the IEEE P1901 working group, representing

Panasonic (since 2005)
Member of the IEEE-SA Standards Board (since 2011)
Chair of the IEEE ComSoc PLC Standards Committee (since 2012)
Member of the IEEE ComSoc Standards Development Board (since 2010)

Other activities
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Founding Chair of the IEC-CISPR group on EMC for BPL (2005-2010)

Member of CENELEC and ETSI committees
Consultant for the European Commission: evaluator and reviewer of R&D
projects
Leading positions in collaborative R&D projects

Agenda
Powerline Communications
! IEEE Standards
! Smart applications
(courtesy of the HD-PLC Alliance www.hd-plc.org)

Agenda
Powerline Communications
! IEEE Standards
! Smart applications
(courtesy of the HD-PLC Alliance www.hd-plc.org)

IEEE PLC Standards Committee

Implementation
IEEE 2030 : Guide for Smart Grid
Interoperability

Applications

Pioneer Standard

IEEE 1901.2 : Low Frequency/ Narrow Band

PLC for Smart Grid Applications

IEEE 1901
Broadband over Power
Line MAC/PHY Layers

Integration

Wide scope
In-home
Access
Smart Grid
Transportation

2010

2011

IEEE 1909.1 : Recommended

Practice for Smart Grid
Communication Equipment

IEEE 1905.1 : Convergent Digital Home

Network for Heterogeneous Technologies
IEEE 2030.5 : Adoption of
Smart Energy Profile 2.0

2012

2013

2014
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IEEE1901 is targeting variety of applications

AV/ PC Entertainment
In home

SmartGrid: Energy management

Access BPL
Out side Home

SCOPE
Transportation
System
EV-HAN
Communication

Cabin Entertainment System

Digital Signals
in the Train

Wide Range Scope

Scope of IEEE 1901
1) In-Home Broadband over Powerline PHY&MAC
2) Access Broadband over Powerline PHY&MAC
3) PHY&MAC for Transportation System
4) Coexistence among different PLC systems
About 350 experts from over 100 world leading companies and
Institutes jointly developed IEEE1901 standard.

IEEE 1901 - 2010

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IEEE Standard for Broadband over Power Line Networks:

Medium Access Control and Physical Layer Specifications
High performance
500 Mbps class (PHY rate)
Robustness to noise / large coverage (RS-CC, Turbo code or LDPC)
Quality of Service compatible with IPTV, VoIP and real time audio
(TDMA and CDMA)
Security (Authentication, AES128 encryption)

Coexistence: Inter System Protocol (ISP)

ISP allows allows four non-interoperable PLC systems to coexist
Time and frequency division

Standard supported by the HD-PLC Alliance and the HomePlug

Alliance

IEEE 1901 in the NIST SGIP Catalog of Standards

NIST SGIP (National Institute of Standards, Smart Grid Interoperability Panel) approved the
following PLC standards as a part of SGIP Catalog of Standards on Jan 31, 2013:

(1) IEEE 1901

: IEEE international standard for BPLC (HD-PLC is conformant)
(2) IEEE 1901 ISP / ITU-T G.9972: BPLC Coexistence mechanism (HD-PLC is conformant)
(3) NIST IR 7862 : NIST Recommendation about Coexistence Mandatory Coexistence
( http://collaborate.nist.gov/twiki-sggrid/bin/view/SmartGrid/WebHome)

NIST SmartGrid

PLC IEEE 1901 IEEE 1901 G.9960

Wavelet
FFT OFDM
(G.hn)
OFDM

Coexistence

Others
(Future)

Coexistence Protocol for different PLCs

ISP (Inter-System Protocol)

Key Point
In order to be compliant with NIST SGIP, it is mandated that all BB-PLC
technologies operating over powerlines implement and activate ISP
coexistence protocol ( i.e. be always on)

IEEE 1905.1 - 2013

Abstraction Layer for Unifying Wired and Wireless Home Networks

HD-PLC

IEEE 1905.1 - 2013

Key features and benefit
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Ease of Use: Common setup procedures

Aggregated Throughput
Load Balancing: Intelligently distribute
multiple video streams over different
paths to limit congestion and maintain
reliability
QoS: Uniformed prioritized QoS over
multiple technologies
Security: P1905 allows devices to be
configured the same way with a simple
button push
Advanced Diagnostics

Multipath delivery:
1901
802.11

Range Extension:
1901

802.11
802.11

Tablet

IEEE 1905.1a - 2014

Amendment to 1905.1 - 2013
Generic way to include additional MAC/PHYs, e.g:
! ITU-T G.hn and G.hnem
! HD-PLC 3 inside
! HomePlug AV2
! IEEE 1901.2 Narrow band PLC
! HomePNA
! MoCA2.0
! Zigbee
! Bluetooth
Other improvements

IEEE 2030.5 - 2013

Adoption of Smart Energy Profile 2.0 Application Protocol
Standard
! Specifications prepared by the ZigBee Alliance
! Fully compatible with HD-PLC
! Adoption in IEC under consideration for under the IEC/IEEE
Dual Logo Agreement
Revision started in 2014

IEEE 1901.2 - 2013

Standard for Low Frequency (less than 500 kHz) Narrow Band
Power Line Communications for Smart Grid Applications
Scope
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Frequency below 500 kHz

Indoor and outdoor
Low and medium voltage
Communication through MV-LV transformers

Main applications
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Grid to utility meter

Electric vehicle to charging station
Home area networking communications

IEEE 1909.1 - 2014

Recommended Practice for Smart Grid Communication
Equipment -Test methods and installation requirements
Scope
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Recommendations for testing and installing smart grid

communication equipment
Based on national and international standards available
All parts of the grid: generation, transmission and distribution

Need
!

Lack of experience about standards applicable to communication

equipment to be installed in the smart grid

Agenda
Powerline Communications
! IEEE Standards
! Smart applications
(courtesy of the HD-PLC Alliance www.hd-plc.org)

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Smart grid / smart metering

Narrow band PLC is sufficient
for simple metering systems:
meter reading + transmission of
prices
Managing smart homes with
power generation (solar,
combined heat pumps, energy
storage) and controllable loads
(e.g., appliances) or e-car
charging stations required
broadband communication
such as IEEE 1901
Broadband PLC provides realtime connectivity within the
utility

Smart grid / smart metering

IEEE 1901 can also be used for
broadband communications
over medium voltage lines
IEEE 1901 enables the
operation of the smart grid
infrastructure
SCADA data
Distribution automation
Distributed energy
management and High
control (DER, storage, PEV)
Video surveillance
Voice

IEEE 1901 provides a costeffective backhaul of AMI data

Other examples of smart applications

Elevator system
Industrial Robot
Caring Facility / Hospital
Smarter Greenhouse
Intelligent street lighting
For details please contact the HD-PLC Alliance at
www.hd-plc.org

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Thank you
Contact information
Jean-Philippe Faure
jean-philippe.faure@progilon.com

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