Powerline Telecommunications Activity Report 2016

Chairman: Roger Samy, Sagemcom

Responsible for the standardisation necessary for the distribution of video, voice and data communications applications and services via the existing private wireline networks using Powerline Telecommunications (PLT) transceivers 

In 2016, ETSI’s Powerline Telecommunications committee (TC PLT) focused primarily on the transportation of video over wireline for gigabit home networking.

TC PLT has been addressing the co-existence of Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) modems and PLT at customers’ premises to preserve the high throughputs of DSL technologies. This work was undertaken in collaboration with Study Group 15 of the Telecommunications Standardisation sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T). In 2016 TC PLT completed a Technical Specification (TS) for co-existence processing recommendations to avoid interference between VDSL2 and PLT; it was published in May. 
 
Work continued on a test specification for co-existence mechanisms between PLT and VDSL2/the G. Fast Recommendation.

A revised version of the TS on Open Smart Grid Protocol was published in December. This includes updated security requirements for smart grids to ensure continued protection for utility companies and customer information.

The committee began work in March on a new TS which will define the transcoding of HD and UHD video over powerline networks, with the aim of improving network coverage.

It was decided that TC PLT should merge into ETSI’s Access, Terminals, Transmission and Multiplexing committee (TC ATTM) in 2017 and that its outstanding activities should be taken over by TC ATTM’s working group TM6. This would enable the exploitation of the synergy with TM6 in the preparation of Plugtests™ events on the co-existence of DSL and PLT as well for hybrid home networks.