Billion boosts HomePlug range to 500Mbps

Stephen Withers
Friday, 09 December 2011 13:39

Your IT - Home IT

New HomePlug adaptors from Billion provide a nominal 500Mbps over household mains wiring.

While Wi-Fi is the de facto standard for home networks, the increasing use of devices requiring higher and more consistent bandwidth means HomePlug is increasingly popular technology for extending an Ethernet network.

HomePlug connects two or more Ethernet ports over normal mains wiring. Successive generations of equipment have increased HomePlug speeds, and Billion has now launched a 500Mbps adaptor which is particularly suitable for IPTV, VoIP and high-speed Internet access.

Billion's BiPAC P108 HomePlug kit costs $149 and comprises two BiPAC 2075 Ethernet-over-power adapters. Typically, one of the adaptors will plug into a router or switch, and the other to a remote device such as an IPTV set top box, or a switch to allow the connection of multiple devices. You'll need Gigabit Ethernet devices in order to take advantage of the full speed of the new adaptors.

The BiPAC 2075 has a power-saving feature that puts it into sleep mode when network devices are powered down or disconnected.

"QoS (Quality of Service) prioritises the data to guarantee optimal transmission quality," said George Tsang, sales manager at Billion distributor PCRange. "TV and video images are received and displayed with absolute smoothness. QoS also guarantees the clear, instant reproduction of voice data, even when other applications are running on the network at the same time."