Patent ID: 7142094

Claim:
A powerline based communication system comprising: a powerline node that couples to a power grid and to a high-speed communication link and comprises: a Radio Frequency (RF) transceiver that couples to the power grid and having receive path components and transmit path components; and a baseband processor that communicatively couples to the high-speed communication link; a powerline gateway that communicatively couples to the powerline node via a signal path of the power grid and comprises: an RF transceiver that couples to the power grid, communicates with the RF transceiver of the powerline node within a data communication band via the signal path, and has receive path components and transmit path components; and a baseband processor, wherein the power grid is designed to provide electrical utility service within a lower frequency band; wherein the signal path is characterized by an end-to-end attenuation within the data communication band employed by the powerline node and the powerline gateway to exchange communications; and wherein a system gain provided by the powerline node and the powerline gateway is chosen to overcome the end-to-end attenuation provided by the power grid within the data communication band.