Dynamic resource allocation protocol for large PLC networks

Abstract

Power Line Communication (PLC) networks utilize the available electricity cables for the transmission of the communication signal. In order to cover a large area, a PLC network is organized into so-called multi-PLC-cell system. Based on the structure of the electricity network, the PLC cells in a network can be in chain, ring, star, or meshed structures. Due to variations of the traffic requirements in different PLC cells, resource allocation protocols which allow transmission resource to be dynamically shifted between the cells are necessary. Considering large PLC networks, the resource allocation protocols should be released in a distributed fashion, in which all PLC cells actively participate to the decision of the resource allocation in the entire network. The transmission resource is also reused when two PLC cells are located far enough from each other. In this paper, a dynamic resource allocation protocol which supports for large multi-PLC-cell network is investigated. The performances of the protocols are evaluated by means of simulation modeling for different kinds of PLC cell structures. Some simulated performance parameters are validated by analytical evaluation method.