The HomePlug (News - Alert) Powerline Alliance announced that its Technical Working Group has enhanced the HomePlug AV2 specifications to make it more suitable for providing a connected digital home.

Additionally, the AV2 specification will be fully interoperable with current HomePlug AV and future HomePlug Green PHY and IEEE (News - Alert) 1901 products, said company sources.

“Powerline networking between modems and set-top boxes is being used today by many broadband service providers to reduce capital expenses and support costs associated with delivering new triple play and IPTV (News - Alert) services,” said Kurt Scherf, vice president, principal analyst, Parks Associates. “More than 50 operator/service providers have deployed HomePlug AV powerline networking solutions as a means to expand services. These providers require a migration path to a much higher performance powerline technology to meet future bandwidth demands while maintaining interoperability with their current HomePlug AV installations and future IEEE1901 products,” Scherf added.

The powerline enhancements included MIMO or Multiple-Inputs Multiple-Outputs feature which increases the link throughput and also the range without requiring additional spectrum or transmit power.

Company sources explained that MIMOwillallow the data signal to propagate from multiple outputs to multiple inputs implementing advanced transmission coding schemes which will increase capacity and enable more reliable and expanded home coverage.

Other enhancements include increased MAC or Medium Access Control efficiencies that lower overhead and expand throughput besides including increased operating spectrum. The specification will expand operations into an additional spectrum way beyond current powerline technology. This increased bandwidth is expected to improve performance besides extending coverage via repeating and routing technology in networks of three or more nodes.

Rob Ranck, president of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance said, “The TWG made significant progress toward our goal of deploying a truly next-generation HomePlug powerline specification to address future market demands, and that is built on the excellent powerline products readily available and in use.”

He added that consumers are interested in video, gaming and other media content available on the Internet, and they require a way to connect entertainment devices for moving multiple streams of content to any room in the home. HomePlug AV serves this purpose and AV2 provides the migration path to support more network capacity for distributing ultra-high quality content throughout the home.