Technology

PowerBus Rhino

RHINO Technology Overview - Download the PDF

RHINO Technology

In mid-2004 with its 10-year experience, Domosys opted to approach PLC differently and embarked on the development of sophisticated tools to characterize the various conditions known to be problematic to other PLC technologies, including Domosys’ PowerBus™ second generation PLC technology. These tools could be left on sites to record environment conditions and send recorded data to Domosys via Internet. The tools could also recreate these conditions back in the lab and then be used for PLC simulations. Domosys then designed different techniques, algorithms and processing methods for each of these various harsh conditions, creating the foundations for RHINO. The development of RHINO started with data gathering from various places: Domosys captured thousand of different power line noises around the globe.

Prototypes of the RHINO Physical Layer were first field-tested in early 2005; some tests were performed in the world’s largest power line lab. The prototypes were also tested in locations where some of Domosys customers had incurred problems with other PLC technologies. In all cases, the new RHINO Physical Layer solved previously experienced communication problems. It was then improved and refined, and finally integrated into a complete protocol stack based on its predecessor, the PowerBus™ Protocol, to give birth to the new PowerBus™ RHINO Protocol. The first RHINO Beta version was installed in the field in 2006. After further improvements and optimizations, the first commercial version was released in 2007 in a street lighting application.