Universal powerline bus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Universal Powerline Bus (UPB) is a proprietary software protocol developed by Powerline Control Systems[1] for power-line communication between devices used for home automation. Household electrical wiring is used to send digital data between UPB devices via pulse-position modulation.[2]
Communication is peer to peer, with no central controller necessary.[3]
UPB addressing allows 250 devices per house and 250 houses per transformer, allowing over 62,500 total device addresses and can co-exist with other powerline carrier systems within the same home.[4][5]
As of 2018[update], UPB enjoys one of the broadest range of device types when compared to most protocols and has support from some major manufacturers in the home automation space, most notably, Leviton and their Omni series of home automation products, as well as the UPB devices they market. UPB is also supported by many major home automation software manufacturers. A few of which are listed below.
UPB is a highly reliable protocol [6] for home automation. It is not susceptible to RF interference, signal blockage by walls or short distance broadcast issues like some wireless protocols. UPB transmits on the building's existing wiring and has extensive noise reduction circuitry. This allows it to traverse long distances without issues, even across multiple electrical panels, making it ideal for very large homes. Appliances that have traditionally plagued X10 devices, usually do not affect UPB. In fact, UPB signals can reliably be received by the target device even with significant amounts of electrical noise on the power lines. However, in the event that an appliance in home causes extreme interference when operating, an inexpensive wire-in noise filter can be applied at the circuit breaker panel to solve the issue.
