Main features of the PLC
These new PLCs from the manufacturer devolo incorporate all the necessary technologies to provide the best speed, minimum latency and the best possible user experience. If you are looking for the best PLCs on the market regardless of price, these new models from the manufacturer will meet your expectations.
Powerline Features
These new PLCs use G.hn (HomeGrid Forum) technology for the interconnection of the different PLCs through the electrical network of our home. Thanks to this new technology, which is far superior to the HomePlug AV2 that we were using up to now, we will be able to achieve a speed of up to 2,400Mbps on the electrical network in MIMO mode using the ground connection. In real life these figures are approximately half, something completely normal and that occurs in all PLC devices.
A very interesting feature of the new G.hn standard is that it has a range of up to 500 meters, therefore, we will be able to use these PLCs in very large houses with several floors, since they will be interconnected without any problem. Of course, the usual recommendations when using PLC devices are also necessary here:
- Connect the PLCs directly to the wall socket, without passing through any type of strip.
- Do not connect a PLC inside a UPS.
- Devices that are close to the PLC such as a UPS, oven or other appliances that consume a large amount of energy in a short period of time will cause speed drops.
Once we have seen the characteristics of the PLCs, we are going to see the WiFi specifications.
devolo has incorporated a specific button to synchronize the PLC devices in the electrical network, thanks to this button we can carry out a really easy and fast installation.
Wi-Fi Features
These new PLCs are Simultaneous dual band with WiFi 6 and AX1800 class. In the 2.4GHz band we will be able to achieve a speed of up to 574Mbps, thanks to its two internal antennas in MU-MIMO 2T2R configuration, at 40MHz of channel width and also to the new WiFi 6 standard. In the 5GHz band we will be able to achieve a speed of up to 1201Mbps, thanks to its two internal antennas in MU-MIMO 2T2R configuration, 80MHz channel width and WiFi 6. This PLC with built-in WiFi supports all the typical channels of the 5GHz band for indoor equipment, from channels 36 to 48, channels 52-64 which are DFS and also channels 100 to 140 which are DFS.
In order to provide the best possible security, these manufacturer’s PLCs support the WPA3-Personal encryption, with the aim that all the data travels perfectly encrypted from the PLC to the different WiFi clients that we connect. However, to provide compatibility with older clients or those that do not support WPA3, we also have the possibility to configure WPA2-Personal without problems.
Regarding the functionalities of WiFi Mesh, this PLC has WiFi roaming between the different PLCs Using the 802.11k/v/r standards, thanks to this incorporation we will be able to go from one WiFi PLC to another in a completely transparent way, without losing the WiFi connection when performing WiFi roaming. Another very important feature is the incorporation of band-steering, a technology that allows us to have a single SSID (WiFi network name) for the two frequency bands, the PLC with WiFi will be in charge of managing the connection to the 2.4GHz band or 5GHz, depending on client coverage, number of connected clients and other internal parameters.
With the WiFi roaming and band-steering, we will have a single WiFi network and the WiFi Mesh system will be in charge of locating us in the best WiFi PLC and in the best frequency band. This way, wireless clients will have the best possible user experience, so you don’t have to worry about which AP to connect to or which frequency band, it’s all automatic. We also have other technologies such as Airtime Fairness, we have WiFi network for guests, WiFi scheduler and even parental control to block access to the devices we want.
These PLCs also have a WPS button to synchronize wireless clients easily and quickly, in addition, this button can also be activated to turn the WiFi wireless network on and off without the need to go into the firmware or use the application.
Wired Features
Regarding the wired characteristics of this PLC, the main PLC that is directly connected to the router has a single Gigabit Ethernet port for the LAN, this PLC does not incorporate WiFi connectivity, and serves to provide the rest of the PLC with a connection to the local network. that we connect The additional PLCs that do incorporate WiFi connectivity have two Gigabit Ethernet ports for the LAN, thanks to these two Gigabit Ethernet ports we can connect our Smart TV and a console, or any other device, without the need for a switch to have more Ethernet ports. .
firmware and apps
The firmware of these devolo PLCs are as complete as ever, we will be able to configure them in a really simple way and see the synchronization status of the PLCs in real time. Other available options are to configure the SSID and WiFi security that we want, configure parental control, the possibility of activating the WiFi network for guests, programming the WiFi on and off and many other options.
Thanks to devolo’s HomeNetwork application, we will be able to install, administer and manage PLC devices easily and quickly, without the need to enter via the web with a browser, we can do everything through the mobile application for Android and iOS . We also have the devolo Cockpit application available for Windows, Linux and MacOS computers, from where we can monitor the status of the Powerline network.
As for the price of these new PLCs, the “Starter kit” pack with a main PLC without WiFi and an additional PLC with WiFi is €239.90, if you are interested in the “Multiroom” pack that consists of a Main PLC without WiFi and two additional PLCs with WiFi, the price is €399.90. If you want to buy an additional PLC adapter with built-in WiFi, the price is €179.90.
As you can see, the prices are quite high, but we must bear in mind that we are buying the best PLCs on the market both in terms of Powerline and WiFi, since it incorporates the latest WiFi 6 standard with all the necessary technologies to have the best possible user experience.
