Impulsive noise reduction techniques in power line communication: a survey

Abstract

Power line communication (PLC) is a technology that permits data transmission using the electrical networks. In the last few years, research in the area of efficient wired home-networking services and smart grid has received a great interest thanks to the already-existing electrical networks and the ubiquitous sockets (outlets). However, the power line channel presents a challenging task and provides drastic medium for multimedia (audio, image and video) transmission. In fact, over the last decades, there has been an intense research in the area of impulsive noise reduction in PLC environments and numerous error-mitigation strategies have been proposed, thus the need for such a broad survey. To this end, this paper presents a comprehensive overview, with major emphasis on identifying strengthens and weaknesses of the state-of-the-art techniques, and discusses some challenges and future research directions thorough consolidation of related works on PLC signal protection strategies against impulsive noise effects.