Free public powerline LAN: A grassroots public infomation network

Hi everyone. I was thinking. Why can't we the public have our own internet/DLC,media,P2P,torrents/VOIP-phone/iptv/P2P gaming LANs/ etc instead of paying a gatekeeper for a fractional slice of the backbone's bandwidth?

Just one ency-wency problem. High Inductance powerline Tranformers. They block any carrier signal higher than 100hz from passing through the line to your house.
That effectively means no broadband AT ALL.

If there were some way to bridge the gap between the transformer and the outside line we would be one more step to free P2P WANs/LANs for all sorts of applications like say UNCENSORED NEWS/MOVIES/MUSIC WITHOUT CORPORATE/ELITISIST/FASCIST PROPAGANDA/INDOCTRINATION.

I just read with wireless energy transfer and resonant enery transfer on Wikipedia.org. What if you send a large amount of ultrasound tuned to a certain frequency over the AC/DC outlet plug. Would it get to the Transformer? Would the transformer's inductor and the magnetic field it creates oscillate at the frequency of the ultrasound? Is there some way possible to bypass a high-pass filter(50-100hz transformer) to send much higher frequency signals(above 1ghz-8ghz+) over the powerline?

If there is a signal on the line at said frequency will the tuned(via ultrasound vibrating the inductors at the same frequency of the carrier) transformer's magnetic field induct the carrier signal past the transformer?


Imagine an information network 10 x larger than the internet that is free to the public.

While I like the idea of a grass roots "public access" kind of internet schema, there are more technical hurdles than just carrying the signal. Because of the way internet traffic works (TCP/IP), you have to have routers at every "fork in the road" to move traffic between one network and another. Otherwise, you would have to have one large network with no subnetworks. This would mean the solid implementation of IPv6 and every computer would be visible to every other computer. In addition, you would have to have some mammoth servers handling DNS (name server) requests.

Still, if those hurdles could be worked around, I think it would be a great idea.

Originally posted by rogerstigers
While I like the idea of a grass roots "public access" kind of internet schema, there are more technical hurdles than just carrying the signal. Because of the way internet traffic works (TCP/IP), you have to have routers at every "fork in the road" to move traffic between one network and another. Otherwise, you would have to have one large network with no subnetworks. This would mean the solid implementation of IPv6 and every computer would be visible to every other computer. In addition, you would have to have some mammoth servers handling DNS (name server) requests.

Still, if those hurdles could be worked around, I think it would be a great idea.

You could just have regional (server routing centers) "jump" sites that both amplify the signal(even though the chipset uses E-line surface propagation technique) and rout packets from jump network to jump network.

oh great idea
where do I plug in ???

Power line networking has been around for some time...It would work great in the states, but not so much on DC current grids. A town in England tried this and all the streetlights started blinking in binary.

Problem is, the electric company owns those lines, so they would be in control of the connection just like your ISP's are now. Wouldn't change anything...except get better broadband to rural locations.

One of my gaming buds lives in Cincinnati (one of the first places to try BPL), and he says there are currently two Broadband over Power Line companies up there.

One is "Cinergy" and the other is "Current Communications". They both offer very high broadband with actual 100/100 upload and download speeds (i.e. Great for Game Hosting).

Here's a couple links:

Cinergy

Current Communications - Very informative site.

Wiki BPL Deployments

Back in about 2003 or 4 or so, this was really getting going as prototype systems were deployed in a few spots across the U.S.

One of the main gripes about it was that it was interfering in Ham Radio operations, and I think there was (is) an issue with certain higher frequencies being canceled out or something (haven't done all that much studyin' as of late). I know the AM radio stations were getting into the argument there for awhile.

I so want this deployed across America, as it would provide VERY high speed internet with equally high upload and download speeds for everyone (even in rural areas [the whole point]), but with things going as they are now, and the internet being more of a disease or drug instead of benefit lately, I don't know.

Maybe we should just head outside, or go out to dinner n a movie, or go swimming or to the park without a single tech device for awhile. I believe we really need to get away from ALL this stuff at least a couple hours a day...especially the kids of today (you can almost hear them rotting away in front of the xBox's and iPhones) :/ You almost have to destroy their consoles to get them out of the house, let alone talking to their friends without texting.

EDIT: Added Current Communication's very informative site.

[edit on 22-8-2010 by lagnar]

I love this idea, but I agree "they" own the infrastructure. What can we do?
I am serious, I would love to support this endeavour, financially, physically, whatever !
I feel at this point we should all have access to Morse Code Info, Scanners, and Ham Radio capability.
Personally, I share stuff with my neighbors, greet them heartily, and pray for peace.
Much love.

Originally posted by lagnar
One of my gaming buds lives in Cincinnati (one of the first places to try BPL), and he says there are currently two Broadband over Power Line companies up there.

One is "Cinergy" and the other is "Current Communications". They both offer very high broadband with actual 100/100 upload and download speeds (i.e. Great for Game Hosting).

Problem is Cinergy was taken over by Duke Energy and they are "Duke at one point planned to provide broadband service to as many as 15,000 customers in its Charlotte BPL pilot, but it never reached that many, and even where it does have BPL equipment on its wires customers do not have broadband access any longer.

BPL still has major problems, every transformer must be bypassed and a lot of pilot sites for BPL have stopped broadband