Devolo doubles powerline networking speeds

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 29 Feb 2008 at 10:50

Devolo is promising to demonstrate a powerline networking prototype capable of 400Mb/sec at CeBIT 2008.

Powerline products allow devices to be connected to an ethernet network over the home's electrical wiring, and are currently restricted to speeds of around 200Mb/sec.

Devolo isn't giving any details of how it's doubled the speed, though similar technology from Spanish chip maker DS2 paired two 200Mb/sec boxes, and reports suggest Devolo is heading down the same route.

Despite the 400Mb/sec tag, Devolv admits that the real world throughput - which takes into account variables such as noise on the line and interference from other devices - is likely to be around 180Mb/sec.

According to the company this is still double the real world throughput of 200Mb/sec kit and still good enough to transmit up to five HDTV streams simultaneously.

Devolo says the technology will be commercially available in the second half of 2009, and backward compatible with current standards.