Frequency-shift filtering for OFDM recovery in narrowband power line communications

Abstract

Power line communications (PLC) has been drawing considerable interest in recent years due to the growing interest in smart grid implementation. In smart grids, network control and grid applications are allocated the frequency band of 0-500 kHz, commonly referred to as the narrowband PLC channel. This channel is characterized by strong periodic noise and low signal to noise ratio (SNR). In this work we propose a receiver which uses frequency shift filtering to exploit the cyclostationary properties of both the narrowband PLC noise, as well as the information signal, digitally modulated using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing. The results show that the new receiver obtains a substantial performance gain over previously proposed receivers, without requiring any coordination with the transmitter.