Characteristics of power line networks: Diversity and interference alignment

Abstract

In this paper, we revisit the problem of cooperative communication in power line communication (PLC) networks in two important instances. First, we consider the power line relay channel and investigate possible diversity gains. Exploiting the underlying signal propagation characteristics we sharpen previous results presented on this topic. Second, we apply the insights on signal propagation to the application of blind interference alignment in PLC networks. We show that this concept, previously suggested for wireless communication applying antenna reconfiguration, does not not carry over to PLC using receiver impedance reconfiguration. The results of our work are fundamental in nature and emphasize on the importance of taking the specifics of signal propagation along transmission lines into account when designing cooperative communication methods for PLC.