Opposites attract: WiFi, powerline groups cooperate on smart grid, home networking

Two groups coming at network infrastructure from two very different directions have agreed to move together to accomplish common goals. The WiFi Alliance and the HomePlug Powerline Alliance have, a news release says, "entered into a liaison agreement to facilitate and promote the adoption of HomePlug powerline and WiFi networking technologies in smart grid applications."

The end game is to help consumers move data across home networks using whatever media might be available, the two organizations said.

"Both WiFi and HomePlug solutions will play key roles in energy management and connecting home systems and appliances to the smart grid," said Rob Ranck, president of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance in the news release.

Both groups were already at least dancing together-if not slow dancing-before this latest move as participating members in the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) a forum to develop and deploy the Smart Energy 2 Applications Profile (SEP 2.0).

For more:
- see this news release

Related articles:
Atheros pushing WiFi/powerline combo for smart grid
IPTV, DVRs will spur growth of 'no-new-wires'-based home networks