HomePlug Powerline Alliance

IEEE 1901 Momentum Update

IEEE 1901 is continuing to capture the minds by making good progress. The standard development process is moving forward at a brisk pace given the complexity of the technology. I was at the IEEE 1901 meeting in Tokyo last week and the work was focused on getting the specifications delivered for letter ballot (IEEE 1901 Draft Standard). I was very pleased to see the amount of co-operation among major contributors in the group. The work was a concerted effort by most of the industry players.

If you are not following IEEE P1901’s history, it delivered on its promise to send the baseline text for letter ballot (IEEE 1901 Draft Standard) by July.
This implies that the specifications were stable and mature enough for designers to start their design. This is a significant milestone in IEEE standards development process.

In order to be compliant with the new standard HomePlug chipsets need to add only ISP/IPP element, HomePlug AV devices are already interoperable with future IEEE 1901 devices. The PHY/MAC of the IEEE 1901 standard is already implemented in silicon and field tested. The document defines ALL the details of MAC and PHY and for the parties interested in understanding the details, I can say that the agreed upon standard has more than 1500 pages that provides all the intricacies and the details for implementation.

The striking feature of the approval process was that the letter ballot was approved with more than 82% of the votes. The prospects look good for sponsor ballot in December 2009 and the standards publications in 1H2010.

Posted by P Raj