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My FTTH ONT and its associated wifi router (UK Voda) are currently in separate rooms, linked by Devolo powerline adapters. This is because the ONT location on an external wall an one end of the house is no good for whole-house wifi coverage from the router.

They are currently the only two devices using the powerline system.

I would like to extend my wired LAN to an outbuilding (on same electrical circuit and already known to work with the powerline kit from a previous use case) and if possible want to use an additional powerline adapter to do this - obviously ensuring the LAN itself is actually fed to the powerline system, which it is not at present.

My concern is that the "ONT to Router" connection and the LAN will not coexist happily on the same powerline system. Is this concern warranted? i.e. will I need to physically relocate the router to the same place as the ONT and patch them together directly, and keep the powerline system for the LAN only?

Hope that makes sense.

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  • Powerline typically requires the same circuit, is this other building, on the same circuit breaker (or UK equivalent)?
    – Ramhound
    Commented Mar 11, 2023 at 20:20
  • Yes all on same circuit. It's not whether the powerline will reach the outbuilding (from a previous use I already know that it will) it's more whether the LAN and ONT connections will be able to share the same system. Will update my Q to make this clear.
    – blackworx
    Commented Mar 11, 2023 at 20:28

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Powerline adapters basically create an Ethernet network using your electrical wiring.

There isn’t a limit to the number of powerline adapters that can be used. However, you will be limited by the number of wall outlets and your total available bandwidth. If you have less bandwidth available, you may want to limit the number of powerline adapters that you use.

The bandwidth depends on the quality of your adapters. Manufacturers tend to exaggerate powerline adapter speeds, as their measurements are done in laboratory testing or chip development data rather than in real-world deployments. Your real bandwidth may be less than the indicated one.

Another consideration is latency. Powerline adapters can lower ping, but how well they ultimately perform is influenced greatly by the quality of the electrical wiring found within the home. So even if it works between your home and the outbuilding, the latency/lag is still to be measured, although it's not expected to vary greatly under normal conditions.

It's up to you to look at your bandwidth requirements as compared with the reported bandwidth of your powerline adapters (taken with a pinch of salt).

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  • Thanks @harrymc, although my question isn't about how powerline adapters work or their limits, more whether or not they will work in this specific use case. But: your answer seems to imply that, since the powerline devices create their own "ethernet network using [my] electrical wiring", said network is traffic-agnostic, ie it doesn't matter what any communicating pair of devices is doing, they can talk independently of any other pair of devices on the same network, regardless of the fact that one of my proposed channels (ONT>router) is WAN and the other (router>outbuilding device) is LAN?
    – blackworx
    Commented Mar 11, 2023 at 22:16
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    Yes, technically this network is equivalent to a normal Ethernet one (although with some unique properties). You don't need to expand the network with pairs, a single will do.
    – harrymc
    Commented Mar 11, 2023 at 22:28

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