ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the operational capability of broadband over power line (BPL) equipment vendors. It examines both the field trial and the deployment associated with the City of Manassas, Virginia, as an entity. Under the Ambient network architecture, electronic devices referred to as “nodes” are deployed at selected locations in the utility distribution network. The S-node is located at a utility substation and can be considered to represent a substation node. The architecture used in the Progress Energy field trial can be thought of as a BPL to the neighborhood or a final over-the-air solution, because WiFi provides the connection into the home and small business. Current Communications Group of Germantown, Maryland, has three subsidiaries involved with partnering with utilities to provision technology and equipment that enable broadband transmission over power lines. Main.net’s PLUS solution was developed to facilitate the installation of equipment necessary to overlay an electric utility infrastructure to support data communications.
