The main project objective is to develop and validate a ‘plug and play’ Cognitive Broadband over Power Lines (CBPL) Demonstration Units that meet the regulatory requirements concerning electro-magnetic (EM) radiation and can deliver high data rates while using with low transmit power spectrum density (PSD) and working at low signal to noise ratio.
Scientific and Technological Objectives
The CBPL technology is employing asynchronous, peer to peer communications between the users to keep the required transmit power spectral density as low as possible to comply with the regulatory requirements. One of the consortium Partner has several patent applications for the proposed technology based on multi-carrier modulation employing also known as wavelet-FDM (instead of OFDM) digital filter banks (DFB) to achieve high stop-band attenuation to minimize the interferences in the frequency bands allocated to other users.
Technical Approach adopted
The technical approach adopted is in two phases:
* Phase 1: a few CBPL demonstrator units will be designed and developed using FPGA devices to validate the analog front end (AFE) under real world operations before starting the design of analog ASICs .
* Phase 2: Develop analog ASIC and integrate with the new CBPL system, validate in field trials to demonstrate the better performance of CBPL technology.
Dissemination through broadband Cluster activities, and other events related to access networks, PLC standardization at IEEE were also followed in parallel with the technical objectives. The project was very successful in integrating the concepts so developed into IEEE1901 standards.
Expected Results
The following are the expected results that were foreseen at the beginning of the project:
Most of these results are demonstrated during the field trials and in the labs to the interested parties and hence the project concluded successfully.
Contribution to standards
The CBPL technology used in POWERNET has been proposed to IEEE P1901 standards working group, and has been included in the retained Homeplug/Panasonic proposed standard. The activities with standardization will continue with IEEE, ETSI and ITU working groups to promote the POWERNET develop technology to become part of the agreed standards.
IPRs from the project
Three patents have been filed by the projects during the last year:
ACN has filed 2 applications:
IMEC has filed its patent application for
Conclusions from the concluded project
POWERNET project though small in number of partners involved and resources planned, it had an ambitious project in testing the new concepts of wavelet-FDM associated with digital filter banks to achieve new level of performance in meeting very stringent EM radiation limits and provide higher data rates. The partners involved were specialiyed in their respective domain with minimum overlap and hence could achieve what is not possible otherwise.
The project defined the system architecture and followed up the design and development of 4 independent boards of CBPL demonstration unit with analog, digital, processor unit and interface the powerline and the Internet with off the shelf component within the first year, to test in the field the hypothesis and computer simulation results that was available before the start of the project. The first set of field trials demonstrated the validity of the new modulation technology and hence the project went ahead in designing the analog ASIC with extended bandwidth of 60 Mhz against standard 30 MHz systems in the market.
The analog ASIC were fabricated and packaged by ST Microelectronics and were obtained functional in the very first run. In parallel new digital algorithms were designed for higher bit loading and error correction to improve the data rate and lower bit error rate. All these functionalities were integrated into new PC boards of the CBPL system and were tested both in Labs and in the field in a real environment. The results have shown superior aggregate data rates with acceptable bit error rates.
The project also was very active in the dissemination activities. They participated actively in the Broadband cluster meetings, and organised several events and presented papers in the conferences and journals.
The new technology proposal was presented to IEEE1901 standards group, and succeeded in integrating DFB proposals to the retained standard proposed by Homeplug-Panasonic alliance group.
The project is thus successful to meet all targeted objectives in relatively short term with some delays due to late availability of ASICs and manufacturing of PC boards. The project partners have been contacted by many interested parties across the world for possible field trials in their respective countries and networks, thus increasing the potential of early exploitation opportunities.