anyone heard of it? worked with it? know stuff about it other than what wiki says?

if so I'd definately like to know what you thought of it.

11/6/2007 3:55:02 AM

I work with it. We use it at Catawba Nuclear to bring internet into our Reactor Buildings. It's relatively easy to set up, cheap, and it is relatively speedy (Fast Ethernet speeds only). But you get what you pay for. If you have anything that also transmits in its frequency band then they fuck each other up.

Let's just say, its a stopgap for us until they get fiber optic penetrations installed. Also, if Duke Energy ever finishs rolling it out on the Power Delivery side, I'd get it at the house. Since it is supposed to cost the same for ~27 Mb to the house as you pay for ~6-8 for cable or DSL.

11/6/2007 5:20:46 AM

I've heard lot about it effecting RF and HF stuff, have you found that to be true?

So would I be correct in saying that you're using it until you get a fiber drop?

11/6/2007 6:25:21 AM

We have not seen RF/HF interference issues. I don't remember straight off what the frequencies our devices use - I think 30Hz - 30MHz. The devices we are using are only licensed for experimental use (i.e. the FCC did not provide full license) they are also notched at the various HAM frequencies (and obviously 60Hz) to prevent interference on previously licensed bands. However, being that containments are metallic, the BPL signals are not radiating out of the building.

You are correct in saying that we are waiting until we can get fiber into the building. Due to our licensing with the NRC we have to be able to maintain a certain pressure in containment with very limited leakage - in the event of an accident - so it is not as simple as drilling a hole and filling it back with firestop. Also, do to licensing issues, are plant modifications are limited to use the 10 Mbps devices that were available when we first installed the equipment in 2006. There is 100 Mbps devices out there now, but this still would not support the camera systems that our Operations, Radiation Protection and Security groups want to run. Our RP wants full resolution, interlaced video - at a nice juicy 6Mbps per camera - and they originally wanted at least 27 of these cameras.

Talking with IST Connax - a penetration manufacturer - they can provide us 8 strand fiber penetrations at $25K a pop, but we have to have an adapter made for our DG O'Brien penetrations for an additional $15K a pop. I want 24 strands (50/50 multi/single mode) in each half containment. Then generating a plant modification package and implementating a package cost mucho denario as well. I am proposing this package to our modificiation department on Tuesday - I hope it goes well. One of the first sites to install these feedthroughs, back in 2000, paid $250K per 8 strand penetrations - so the costs have dropped dramatically.

11/8/2007 6:07:26 PM

the BPL stuff as of 3 years ago had a lot of issues with the transformers also... b/c power lines are stepped up and down so many times and the transformers cause funny things to happen with the signals and were destroying any multistep run...

that and it was squashing HAM radio... but notch filters/not using those frequencies are easy enough...

11/8/2007 8:23:58 PM