News

The HomePlug Powerline Alliance Selects France Telecom's Turbo Code Program in Its AV Specification (18/2/2005)

France Telecom (NYSE:FTE) a world leading communications carrier and innovator through its research and development group, congratulates the HomePlug(R) Powerline Alliance on the adoption of Turbo Codes in the HomePlug AV specification. HomePlug AV provides broadband home networking, enabling connectivity and distribution of HDTV, Digital Audio, and Internet access throughout the home via existing power lines.

The requirements of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance were some of the most demanding in today's highly competitive, home networking marketplace. These requirements include data rates of up to two hundred (200) Mbps to support multiple HDTV streams and the distribution of data throughout a home over existing power lines. The Alliance is achieving these goals while also providing these requirements at a low price point, for a cost sensitive market.

"We are very pleased to have worked with the HomePlug Alliance from an early stage regarding Turbo Codes," stated Francois Jamet, Director of Intellectual Property and Licensing for France Telecom. "We congratulate them on the significant milestone achieved in entering the final stage of the AV specification process."

The advanced preliminary specification for HomePlug AV is the culmination of the combined efforts and melding of technical contributions from several manufacturers to create a single best-in-class technology. "The HomePlug Alliance selected the best technical elements from a variety of contributions," said Oleg Logvinov, president of the Alliance and also president and CEO of Arkados, Inc. a subsidiary of CDKnet.com. "Turbo Codes provide a market tested and cost effective solution that achieve exceptional performance and higher throughput."

Invented by Claude Berrou and Alain Glavieux, Turbo Codes have power efficiencies approaching the theoretical "Shannon limit." Turbo Codes represent a revolutionary form of forward error correction (FEC), one of the fundamental building blocks of any type of digital communication, and have been widely recognized and honored for this technological innovation. Turbo Codes provide higher data throughput and increased range for any digital broadband application. These advantages combined with increasing bandwidth demands, as well as the maturity and understanding of the technology have led to the adoption of Turbo Codes in communications standards ranging from cellular telecommunications (CDMA2000 and W-CDMA), satellite (DVB-RCS, CCSD), broadband wireless (802.16), and most recently to home powerline networking (HomePlug AV).

In order to make available its related intellectual property, France Telecom established the Turbo Code Licensing Program (TCLP). The TCLP is administered by Spectra Licensing Group as the single, worldwide licensing agent.

www.rd.francetelecom.fr
www.homeplug.org