New Alliance to Establish Common Specifications for Promoting PLC-Based Home Networking

January 7, 2005

Matsushita Electric (Panasonic), Mitsubishi Electric and Sony, today announced that they agreed to establish an alliance for high-speed power line communication (PLC) specifications. These specifications will allow smooth interface between different systems using electric power lines for audio, video and data networking. The new alliance, tentatively called the CE-Powerline Communication Alliance (CEPCA), will promote PLC-capable home networking worldwide by encouraging other consumer electronics and information technology companies to collaborate.

PLC is considered a critical bi-directional communication channel that will support home networking into the future. It will use existing electric power lines in the home to enable high definition video transmission and the use of IP telephones.

Recent technology advances have seen the growth in home networks to connect a variety of products like computers and appliances that can also be accessed remotely. There is a growing demand for ease of access and smooth interconnectivity. Home networks connected to power lines will have authentication and encryption functions so that PLC ensures safe and secure home networking. PLC offers more solutions with multiple networking access points and plug-and-play features. This makes accessing networks simple.

Building a PLC-based home networking requires overcoming difficulties in interoperability between different manufacturers' products. Panasonic, Mitsubishi Electric and Sony have been working collaboratively in interface technologies and the potential applications of home networking based on high-speed power line communication. The result is the CEPCA promoting common PLC specifications for different makers of PLC-based products.

PLC

The new not-for-profit alliance will encourage consumer electronics and information technology companies worldwide to establish an environment where access to PLC-based home networking is available globally.

Rate this story - 1.9 /5 (7 votes)

rank
1
2
3
4
5

view popular

Other News

Modern tests demonstrate soundness of old iron bridge

Technology / Engineering

43 minutes ago | not rated yet | 0

An unusual bowstring truss iron bridge that carried traffic across Roaring Run in Bedford County, Va. for almost 100 years is now a picturesque footbridge at the I-81 Ironto, Va. rest stop. Built in 1878, ...

Would a Google purchase of Yelp draw regulatory interest?

Technology / Business

18 minutes ago | not rated yet | 0

Google Inc.'s reported plans to acquire local-listings service Yelp may face difficulties, with regulators attuned to the Mountain View, Calif.-based company's established dominance of the Internet-search and advertising ...

Google gets digital foothold in France

Technology / Internet

16 hours ago | 5 / 5 (1) | 0

Despite fierce resistance to Google's plans to digitise the world's books, observers say it is well placed to start scanning Europe's cultural treasures -- beginning in France, where the US giant got a digital ...

Hollywood adds money, talent to made-for-Web shows

Technology / Internet

16 hours ago | 2 / 5 (1) | 0

(AP) -- Web sites that buy original video clips often pay so little that "The Bannen Way," a flashy crime thriller debuting online, looked destined to be made poorly if it could be made at all.

The high speed train named Sapsan moves along the tracks at a station in Saint-Petersburg

Russian railways enter modern age with new express

Technology / Engineering

16 hours ago | 3.8 / 5 (4) | 0

Famed for the legendary trains that clank across seven time zones on its Trans-Siberian railroad, Russia this week entered the modern railway age with its first high-tech express train.