Industry analysts said the spec shows powerline networks are moving closer to reality, even though volume shipments aren't expected until 2002. "The next year or so will be a proof of concept year for powerline-based home networking technologies like HomePlug," said Navin Sabharwal, vice president of residential and networking technologies at Allied Business Intelligence Inc., a research firm in Oyster Bay, N.Y.

Broadband gateway provider Cayman Systems Inc. (Billerica, Mass.) and broadband equipment provider Netgear Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) said they will use the HomePlug 1.0 INT5130 chip set from Intellon Corp.(Ocala, Fla.) in networking adapter products that will appear in 2002. Phonex Broadband Corp. (Midvale, Utah) said it plans to unveil HomePlug 1.0-compliant data network devices this October.

Launched just over a year ago, the HomePlug Powerline Alliance has already created a requirements document for powerline networking, conducted field trials and completed the specification. The group's current goal is to prove the technology reliable and market it to silicon vendors and OEMs.

HomePlug Alliance president Alberto Mantovani said the group's 1.0 spec will provide end users with data rates between 5 Mbits/s and 8.8 Mbit/s in the home, and is good enough for current and near-term applications such as audio streaming, media streaming and voice-over-Internet Protocol. The ability to distribute high-definition video over powerline home networks is at least two years away, he said.

Rival network

The HomePlug 1.0 spec was announced as a rival powerline home networking camp, the Consumer Electronics Association's R7.3 Committee, is reportedly close to releasing documents that will detail the technical requirements for its specification, as well as test procedures and a time line for a technology bake-off.

Companies in the CEA R7.3 group said the specification requirements include support for large numbers of nodes and simultaneous entertainment activities such as streaming audio and video, plus provisions for multicasting and broadcasting, which HomePlug hasn't been proven to support, according to R7.3 companies.

"If you can't do these things, it's not a usable home network," said Michael Propp, president of Adaptive Networks Inc. (Newton, Mass.), which plans to submit its wideband-based powerline networking technology to the CEA R7.3 bake-off. Propp said the HomePlug technology enables a PC-centric, point-to-point unicasting network that is not optimized for home entertainment use.

Propp said a true home network should support multiple nodes, quality-of-service with little latency, multicasting and broadcasting.

Propp also questioned whether the HomePlug Alliance technology will perform as promised, or meet certain Federal Communications Commission limitations for RF emissions.

Many issues related to powerline home networks must still be sorted out, according to analyst Sabharwal. Neither group has determined if its specification and compliant chip sets can be used outside of the United States, as standards for powerline home networks are still being drawn up in Europe and Japan, Sabharwal said.