DSL and PLC Co-Existence: An Interference Cancellation Approach

Abstract

It is often advocated that a solution to the problem of interference to digital subscriber line networks (DSL) from a power line communications (PLC) network is to prevent the PLC networks from utilizing the DSL spectrum. However, this solution will render PLC networks inoperable with the introduction of wide-band DSL technology like G.Fast. We propose utilizing an interference cancelling scheme to ensure the co-existence of DSL and PLC networks within the home environment. A measurement campaign is conducted where a set of 480 measurements are collected within a residential house to characterize the PLC-to-DSL interference environment for two DSL modem installation scenarios. The interference cancelling scheme is based on an adaptive frequency domain interference canceller (FDIC) that utilizes the common mode (CM) PLC interference to estimate the differential mode (DM) PLC interference. The effectiveness of the FDIC, which is insensitive to the non-stationarity of the PLC channel, is demonstrated using analysis that incorporates the measured PLC-to-DSL coupling channels.