LONDON — Victor Dominguez, Director of Strategy and Standardization at Spanish powerline silicon specialist DS2, has been re-elected as chairman of the Powerline Technical Committee of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).

Speaking to EE Times Europe earlier this month, Dominguez said ETSI and the other major standards setter in powerline communications, the IEEE, are "looking to combine their efforts and collaborate on a universal standard for the 200Mbit/s networking technology that will ensure interoperability and coexistence."

He said the groups are "well aligned" and are also tuned in to the needs of the members of the Universal Powerline Association (UPA), but added any global standard may take a further 12 to 18 months of work.

For the moment, the chips DS2 (Valencia, Spain) supplies to modem and router makers rely on specifications drawn up by the UPA rather than the U.S. focused Home PNA group.

The ETSI committee Dominguez has been chairing has already made "significant advances" to ensure the co-existence and interoperability of powerline technologies to enable organizations to extend their presence in the powerline market.

He notes that other candidates for Chairman of the Committee represented proprietary powerline technologies.

"The ETSI standards for powerline are essential for the growth and maturation of this rapidly growing industry, to provide global specifications to ensure all products and applications meet high Quality of Service needs," said Dominguez.

"As an active member of the UPA, I have been heavily involved in the provision of guidelines for co-existence and interoperability to support growth in the industry."

DS2's silicon has also been chosen by the European Union's Open PLC European Research Alliance (OPERA) which is looking at the use of powerline as a basis of fast broadband access, particularly for rural areas.