Broadband over Power Line (BPL) and WiFi™
Amperion PowerWiFi™, Amperion’s hybrid BPL and WiFi solution is a complete, end-to-end network that is professionally engineered and installed. It uses a combination of two very powerful technologies: Broadband over Power Line and WiFi. The parallel use of BPL and WiFi offers significant benefits to Amperion's customers.

Lower Cost 
Amperion PowerWiFi™ uses standard WiFi to distribute broadband services into the client's home or business. This approach provides a lower cost per home passed than BPL-only solutions. With WiFi as the customer's access point, the MV to LV transition, and the associated cost of the MV/LV gateway equipment, is eliminated. There is no need for dedicated CPE installations at the customer premise either.  The Wifi approach simplifies the deployment process and provides significant cost and labor savings.

More Scalability
Adding customers after the initial PowerWiFi™ network deployment requires no additional capital equipment and can be done remotely. In contrast, BPL-only solutions require the installation of a MV/LV gateway unit at every transformer with every new cluster of homes served (average of 5 homes per transformer in the US).

Greater Network Flexibility 
Amperion's use of WiFi can easily create an expandable network of WiFi hotspots that cover cell areas of 700 feet around every pole. While BPL is used as the backbone of the last mile access, PowerWiFi™ units can be deployed beyond the MV grid to increase the total coverage area in any direction. The WiFi capability also enables wireless hops (using secure WDS) across separate electric grid segments.

Higher Availability
Amperion PowerWiFi™ uses WiFi as a failover mechanism to ensure data delivery in cases of temporary interference on the MV line. The seamless switchover between powerline and wireless hops is completely transparent to the user. This capability is unique to Amperion's product and guarantees service continuity at all times.

Amperion PowerWiFi™ is a preferred solution for delivery of data and VOIP services to residential and commercial customers, and a reliable and cost effective enabler of electrical utility applications.

In summary Amperion PowerWiFi™ that combines BPL with WiFi has the following benefits:
Complete turn-key broadband network solution including design, equipment, installation, and  training
Lower capital and operating cost per home passed than BPL-only networks
No LV CPE equipment  and installation labor
No MV/LV gateway equipment 
Not limited by the number of customers per transformer (5 customers)
No additional equipment or line crew labor  when adding new customers
Simple and remote change/add/delete of customers
High availability with built in wireless failover

Amperion provides the best CAPEX and OPEX savings compared to ANY BPL solution in the industry.





Over the past 6 years, Amperion worked very closely with the US and International electrical utilities innovating coupling technology, designing networking products and deploying solutions for utility applications. Amperion incorporated the utilities’ input and its own field experience in its PowerWiFi™ offering.

Amperion’s hybrid network solution enables smart grid applications
Automated Meter Reading and Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMR/AMI)
Demand Side Management and Demand Response (DSM/DR)
Distribution Automation (DA)
Grid Reliability and Power Quality
Outage and Fault Management
Grid Asset Security and Surveillance
Energy Theft Detection
Home Area Networks (HAN)

Unique Benefits of the Amperion Hybrid Network Solution
Amperion’s solution services a full range of smart grid applications over HV, MV and LV (High, Medium and Low Voltage) wires using Amperion’s patent protected coupler technology.

Its high bandwidth, low latency network characteristics combined with end-to-end QoS (Quality of Service) enables concurrent support for multiple utility and commercial broadband applications.

Using a standards’ based open systems architecture offers flexibility and scalability in selection of backhaul connections, ease of deployment and cost containment.

Amperion’s intelligent node provides on board processing and local storage of data. Local filtering of data is required for future scalability - to support a very large number of end points (smart meters, sensors, switches and controllers). Local processing of raw data also relaxes bandwidth requirements of the access network and backhaul connections since only actionable filtered data is being sent back to the management application for processing.  It also optimizes the use of the back office application and reduces cost of its hardware configuration (less storage and processing power are required).

Amperion’s solution makes use of the Ground Station NMS (Network Management System) for management of the devices as well as the BPL links. The 24/7 monitoring capability offers real time visibility and full control over the serviced area.  The NMS has an integrated Google Earth map that shows exact GPS locations of devices, links and CPE’s (meters, controllers, etc.).

Amperion offers an optional BBU (Battery Backup Unit) which maintains full operation of the device for a long period of time (hours) in the event of a power outage. The BBU is a fully integrated function that switches seamlessly between AC and DC. Each transition is detected by the software and reported using an SNMP trap to the NMS.

Amperion’s NMS can be easily integrated with any SNMP management platform used by the electrical utility. Amperion’s communication protocols are protected by using 128 bit WPA (WiFi protected Access) security.

Distribution Automation
Amperion’s low latency network (milliseconds per hop) is ideal for real time DA control and monitoring applications. Amperion devices are equipped with long life external batteries that maintain communications in case of temporary (up to 4 hours) power outages. Any temporary gaps or disconnects in the BPL path due to a switching event are bridged using Amperion’s wireless by-pass feature. Hence communications reliability far exceeds that of stand alone BPL or wireless approaches.

The transition from BPL to wireless happens seamlessly and is fully supported by Amperion’s patented switching algorithm.  Switching events are detected and reported by Amperion’s NMS (Network Management System) using SNMP traps sent from the Amperion PowerWiFi device. Amperion can readily interface with a wide variety of DA end devices (e.g., capacitor bank switches, voltage regulators, sectionalizers, meters, and reclosers) using standard industry protocols.



Grid Security and Surveillance and Asset Management
Using WiFi cameras and intrusion detectors at unmanned sub-stations and monitoring distribution circuit assets 24/7 with Amperion’s Ground Station NMS fulfils a homeland security requirement of protecting critical energy resources from a terrorist attack. It also allows the utility to better manage their grid assets and alert / prevent theft and vandalism.

Amperion’s hybrid network uses end-to-end QoS (Quality of Service) to prioritize critical applications such as streaming live video. It is possible to concurrently run other utility applications such as meter reading and browse the web at the same time without affecting picture quality of the video stream. QoS also allows Amperion to support highest priority protective relaying applications requiring reliable, low latency point to point/multipoint communications.

Grid Reliability and Power Quality
Amperion’s devices are located on the MV wire and can sense changes in SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) across the entire MV circuit. This is important because such changes can be an indicator of a developing electrical problem. Amperion’s NMS monitors the physical conditions of the BPL links 24/7 and provides MRTG (Multi Router Traffic Grapher) graphs of every link using collected SNMP data.

Amperion’s Hybrid Network also supports collecting data from voltage and current sensors and processing the data locally. To minimize data traffic flow, only exceptions are reported to the back office application that monitors the grid. The reporting includes exact GPS location providing full visibility to the management application.

Outage and Fault Management
Power outages as well as temporary voltage dips are reported using SNMP traps by the Amperion devices equipped with battery backup units (BBU). Each AC/DC transition is time stamped and includes GPS coordinates of the nearest device that sensed the outage or fault. In cases where the Amperion NMS is used, the exact location of the device that reported the outage will appear real time on the integrated Google Earth map.

Note that Amperion’s BPL communications continue to function on an un-energized line thoroughout the outage event (up to 4 hours).

Amperion also offers the option to switch to a wireless link during a fault or outage event. The switching occurs seamlessly using Amperion’s patented switching algorithm.

Home Area Networks
Amperion’s Hybrid Network solution fully supports home area networks. Broadband data, voice and video services to the home user are available over a high bandwidth (video), symmetrical pipe (ideal for gaming), and low latency (VOIP) connection. End-to-end QoS enforcement insures high quality of VOIP and video delivery (MOS >3.5) in presence of data, AMR and other utility applications.  The HAN can be accessed wirelessly from the Amperion Access Point (AP) or through a WiFi to Ethernet or WiFi to HomePlug residential gateway.

AMR/AMI, DSM/DR and Energy Theft Detection
In addition to all of the above, Amperion’s Hybrid Network solution fully supports automated meter reading, advanced meter infrastructure (bi-directional interface for control) and demand response, demand side management and distributed energy resource control protocols over IP. Remote connect/disconnect of smart meters can also be done by the nearest Amperion intelligent device and controlled from the utility NOC (Network Operations Center).