Progress 09/01/02 to 08/31/04
Outputs
The purpose of the phase II project was to develop a hybrid modem for power line communications. The goals of this effort were exceeded by several orders of magnitude and the project is already enjoying commercial success. A low-cost prototype hybrid power communication system was designed, implemented, trademarked as PowerCOM, and extensively tested in the laboratory. The utility of the technology was subsequently confirmed during two separate alpha tests in the field. The phase II work overwhelmingly demonstrated that the PowerCOM technology supports wireless back-haul IP connections that are able to span distances between repeaters in excess of 8 miles and that PowerCOM supports 12 simultaneous toll-quality voice calls from each transformer on the power grid by sending G.723.1 or G.711 through the power lines and into the home. The theoretical limit of bandwidth for power line communication technology is 14Mbps; however noise levels and extended range requirements
between the residential transformer and the home bring the median transfer rate of PowerCOM down to 3.5Mbps. Nonetheless, this level exceeds conventional cable and DSL service and will rarely drop the transfer rate for a given customer below 500kbps, which exceeds current phone supported bandwidth by 10dB. This capacity represents a market disrupting technology that will enable power companies and new competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) to deliver cost-effective high-speed data and toll-quality telephone service to rural and suburban areas of the country. Moreover, the technology supports price competition by enabling start-ups to bypasses entrenched competitors who brought copper lines from the curb to each home several decades ago and are currently enjoying lucrative access charges on the edge of the network. Various industrial standards lay the foundation for PowerCOM making the technological approach future proof and very adaptable. PowerCOM fuses the latest advances in
power line and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) communications into very innovative value added solution. The platform is further differentiated from competing offers in the market by innovative mechanical form factors that minimize installation time and material costs. RealTronics filed for patent and trademark protection for the technology, trade names, and the value added solutions that are afforded by this scheme. In particular, the applicant filed for patent protection that will severely impede efforts to compete with the PowerCOM based simply on operation costs. A thorough patent search conducted by RealTronics strongly suggests that blocking and interfering patents do not exist. Commercialization of this effort began during the summer of 2004. A new company named EdgeCOM was spun-off and to date the start-up venture has a pending deployment of $1.4 million in western South Dakota and a separate progressive evaluation and deployment schedule with a rural electric service
provider. The latter will enter a testing phase with 6 units, an evaluation phase of 1,000 units and a subsequent roll-out of 10,000 units if the technology satisfies the rural electric cooperative.
Impacts
The PowerCom technology provides a cost effective method to use the existing power-grid infrastructure to bring advanced voice and broadband service to the last mile. In particular, this technology supports the USDA aspiration of helping rural Americans by providing low-cost phone and broadband internet service to sparsely populated areas. Beneficiaries of the technology include rural and suburban consumers of telecommunication services, the state and federal universal service funds, and other government communication subsidy mechanisms. Thus supporting the objectives set forth in the Telecommunication Act of 1996 to reduce telecommunication subsidies and lower end-user telecommunication costs.
Publications
- Thompson, Scott R., Askildsen, Bernt, A., 2004 trademark applications; EdgeCOM, PowerCOM, Last Mile Solutions, PowerX, and PowerPhone.
- Thompson, Scott R., Askildsen, Bernt, A., 2004, "Housing, Artwork, and Mechanical Design to Reduce Installation Costs of Systems that Bridge Communications to Power-Lines," ER60179868OUS US Provisional Patent Application No. 60-551518, Filed March 8
- Thompson, Scott R., Askildsen, Bernt, A., 2004 "Housing, Artwork, and Mechanical Design to Reduce Installation Costs of Power-Pole, Street Lamp, and Other Pole Mounted Systems that Bridge Communications to Power-Lines," ER601798676US US Provisional Patent Application No. 60-551492, Filed March 9
- Thompson, Scott R., Askildsen, Bernt, A., 2004, "A Method to Combine Back-Haul Access Points And Power Line Communications To Bypass Existing Communication Systems," US Provisional Patent Application No. 60-556834, Filed March 26.
- Thompson, Scott R., Askildsen, Bernt, A., 2004, "Stacked Individually Resonant Dipole or Monopole Antennae To Facilitate Repeater Capacity On Power Line Communication Back Haul Access Networks," ER 601798733 US Provisional Patent Application No. 60-559749, Filed April 4.
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Progress 10/01/02 to 09/30/03
Outputs
The PowerCom technology builds on the aspiration of utilizing available fiber capacity on power substations in combination with wireless links to bring telephone and broadband access to sparsely populated areas. The PowerCom switch couples fiber or wireless access lines onto the secondary side of the transformer. From this point, the unit distributes signals to up to 12 PowerCom user nodes. During this effort FCC imposed several regulatory changes, including a recent decision to adopt rules that allow delivery of broadband Internet via power lines. These changes substantially improve the likelihood that RealTronics will rapidly obtain FCC approval for the PowerCom. Low-cost life line support architecture was designed to ensure that telephone service is available for at least 24 hours in the event of a power outage. Recent tests show that sustainable high capacity broadband connections can be maintained in very noisy environments for distances in excess of 500 feet.
The low-cost switch simultaneously operates 12 telephones and is able to initiate and terminate calls from all end-points while holding toll quality voice and sufficient quality of service (QoS) to meet 911 operator requirements. An omni-directional wireless low-cost broadband link has been identified as a potential bridge between the fiber-net and power pole. RealTronics also designed a directive antenna scheme that will make this a cost-effective link between the existing fiber-net and low-density rural service areas. The applicants orthogonal frequency division multiplexing approach currently supports continuous 3.9Mbps (bits per second) data transfer rates on noisy power-lines. Moreover, this minimum threshold is sustained when multiple users are concurrently on to the network. This rate exceeds the minimum bandwidth of 2.2Mbps needed to support broadband service including telephone, Internet access, and television without data compression. Accordingly, a small improvement in this
rate will simultaneously support two users that are fully using these services. However, if the PowerCom is configured to support the maximum number of 12 users, each customer will have access to approximately 325kbps of combined uplink and downlink bandwidth. A comprehensive functional PowerCom prototype was built and tested successfully, however, due to late component delivery, the first prototype switch was on a single node. Nonetheless, these tests validated system functionality and performance, which supports the merit of 24-hour life-line implementation and mechanical form factor development. By exceeding the original bandwidth aspirations of the phase II proposal, this work has opened the opportunity to integrate high speed Internet and streaming video access into the PowerCom. This capacity increases the level of available customer features and will accordingly facilitate higher monthly cash flows for the service provider. These improvements will support equipment and system
maintenance costs while leading to a possible breakeven business model that will lower the demand on government subsidies.
Impacts
The PowerCom technology provides a cost effective method to use the existing power-grid infrastructure to bring advanced voice and broadband service to the last mile. In particular, this technology supports the USDA aspiration of helping rural Americans by providing low-cost phone and broadband internet service to sparsely populated areas. Beneficiaries of the technology include rural and suburban consumers of telecommunication services, the state and federal universal service funds, and other government communication subsidy mechanisms. Thus supporting the objectives set forth in the Telecommunication Act of 1996 to reduce telecommunication subsidies and lower end-user telecommunication costs.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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