The first CPL 500 adaptors, announced earlier this year, should be available soon. As a reminder, they are little devices looking more or less like a big plug, which allow to transfer data trough electrical plug wires.
The new devices will be based on the
IEEE P1901 standard with HomePlug AV2 as a commercial name. Even though that standard is still a draft, Netgear has already announced that their
Powerline AV 500 series will be fully compatible with it. We are seeing exactly what happened with 802.11n devices which wee sold before the standard was officially set.
Devolo should also come out soon with CPL devices using the draft of that standard, which could reach one Gigabit/s. Of course, that speed is theoretical and impossible to reach because the device includes some correcting systems that slowdown the data transfer.
In some cases, Wi-Fi and CPL can complete each other well, for example to connect two Wi-Fi hotspots separated by a thick wall, or having high speed connection throughout an entire house. The important thing is to have one circuit connecting all the plugs.
