Inari demos next-gen power-line networking chip set

Inari demos next-gen power-line networking chip set
MANHASSET, N.Y. — Inari Inc., a developer of chips that support networking over power lines, is demonstrating its high-speed, 12-Mbit/second solution at the Connections 2001 conference in Seattle Wednesday (May 9).

The company said the three-chip solution would be developed over the next six months, with first silicon due in early 2002. The chips will be manufactured in 0.18-micron process by an as yet unnamed foundry.

Though the solution's raw data rate is classified as 12 Mbits/s, it is expected to provide actual data rates between 6.5 Mbits/s and 8.5 Mbits/s in the home when MAC overhead is factored in, according to Ryan Ashton, Inari vice president of marketing.

The 12-Mbit/s solution, IPL1201, will be the Draper, Utah company's third-generation chip solution designed for power-line-based home networking. It uses the same technology as the firm's second-generation, 2-Mbit/s solution, IPLO201, which is a five-chip set that has been available to OEMs since September.

The company's first-generation power-line networking solution was the 350-Kbit/s Passport Plug-in network product that was sold under the company's former name, Intelogis Inc.

The IPL1201 adds 20 more channels to the existing four used by the IPL0201. The channels are located between 2.5 and 18 MHz. Of the 24 channels, 8 send both command and data, while 16 send only data.

The IPL1201 also balances throughput with reliability by using either quadrature phase shift keying or biphase shift keying encoding to automatically and dynamically negotiate optimal data rates based on channel availability. The IPL1201 is backward compatible with the IPL0201, allowing both chips to communicate on the power-line network without a bridge or router.

MAC layer manages traffic on the network and offers quality of service (QoS) capabilities including prioritization, guaranteed time slots, and low latencies to allow for isochronous communications. The MAC also offers 32-bit device addressing capability.

The 12 Mbit/s solution also includes a 32-bit encryption array coupled with a 256-bit Diffie-Helman public key exchange to enable users to set up a secure network to protect their devices from neighbors on the same power transformer. (Diffie-Helman is a commonly used public-key algorithm for key exhange.) The 12-Mbit/s solution also offers packet-level authentication and a 16-bit hardware cyclic redundancy code.

Inari is already planning a third-generation silicon solution for home networking that would provide 40- to 50-Mbit/s transfer rates for release sometime in 2003.

The company's drawing board also includes plans to consolidate its 2-Mbit/s and 12-Mbit/s solutions down from five and three chips to a single chip, and Inari is also developing a low-cost, low-speed chip in the sub-2-Mbit/s range to address the home control market.

While it focuses on future silicon, Inari continues to move its 2-Mbit/s silicon into consumer products. A power-line networking adapter from Thomson Multimedia SA will be available at retailers this month, and System Link, an external USB to power-line network adapter co-branded by Hewlett Packard and RCA that connects multiple home computers via existing AC electrical wires, will be available in June.

To aid OEMs in developing products and increase sales of its 2-Mbit/s power-line silicon, Inari is providing to OEMs a reference platform for an Ethernet to power-line bridge product for DSL and cable modems. The bridge product will allow consumers to connect any Ethernet-ready product to an Inari power-line network. The reference platform is an add-on to the IPL0201 hardware development kit and includes printed documentation, Ethernet expansion card, crossover cable and straight cable and router application firmware.