Broadband Power Line Communication Channel Research Articles

Efficient Low-Complexity Optimized Channel Estimating Methods for OFDM-Based Low-Voltage Broadband Power Line Communication Systems

Broadband Power Line Communication (BB-PLC) technology enables data transmission for smart grid applications. Nevertheless, channel equalizers are required in the receiver to estimate and compensate for the nonlinear time-variant impulse response and noise interference effects introduced by the BB-PLC channel. In this paper, we append the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm and its proposed improved version to the commonly used Least-Square (LS) and Linear Minimum Mean Square Error (LMMSE) algorithms to advance four new blocktype pilot-aided hybrid channel estimation algorithms for low-voltage Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)-based BB-PLC systems. Extensive numerical simulation results for four different M-QAM formats (M = 8, 16, 32, 64) show that the proposed algorithms significantly improve the performance of the traditional LS and LMMSE estimators, at least for the parameters of the BB-PLC system studied in this work. In addition, the computational load complexity of the PSO-inspired LMMSE algorithm is lower compared to the conventional LMMSE estimator.

Broadband Power Line Communication: The Channel and Noise Analysis for A Power Line Network

The scope for broadband powerline Communication is considered as a retrofit technology for wide geographical coverage wherever the human habitation exists. So during the last decade, it has drawn an enormous quantity of research work for improving communication performance and this system being standardized all over the world. The broadband power line Communication channel modelling is essential in the design of a reliable communications system. An analysis on the proposed channel model is conducted in this paper; also the paper studied the noises in Broadband powerline Communication network and its mathematical model. The channel Transfer function and Error Performance of Proposed powerline communication System noise is evaluated with various digital modulation techniques Bit error rate (BER) and signal to noise ratio (SNR) curve by using simulation software. The results indicated that the noise analysis is effective for modelling the power line communication channel. Also, we have presented the various studies on the channel performance based on Orthogonal frequency-division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems for an efficient design of a Broadband Powerline Communication (BPLC) system.

Modeling of broadband power line communication channel based on transmission line theory and radiation loss

Modeling of broadband power line communication channel based on transmission line theory and radiation loss

Modelling and comparison for low‐voltage broadband power line noise using LS‐SVM and wavelet neural networks

This study is to construct the autoregressive models for the low-voltage broadband power line communication (PLC) channel noise by two machine learning algorithms, namely the least square support vector machine (LS-SVM) and wavelet neural networks. The main work is to compare the two classical machine learning algorithms and also compare them with the traditional Markovian–Gaussian method. To verify their availability and ability to adapt to the time-variant PLC channels, noise measurements for low-voltage PLC channels in indoor and outdoor scenarios are carried out. The accuracy and efficiency of the two models are studied and compared based on a large amount of measurement data. The results show that both of the noise models can simulate and adapt to the time-variant low-voltage broadband PLC channels very well. The LS-SVM model is found to have shorter simulation time and higher accuracy. Moreover, the proposed noise models are also compared with the traditional Markovian–Gaussian model. The results show that both the proposed noise models exhibit higher accuracy and lower complexity, especially that the LS-SVM is more appropriate to be applied as a noise generator in PLC link and network level simulations instead of the current Markovian–Gaussian model.

Bottom-up single-wire power line communication channel modeling considering dispersive soil characteristics

This paper investigates the influence of frequency-dependent soil conductivity and permittivity on narrowband and broadband power line communication (PLC) channel modeling using transmission line theory. For narrowband PLC channels, the variation of the transfer function H(f) of a single overhead wire over a finitely conducting ground due to frequency-dependent soil parameters is minimal for low-resistivity soils, but more relevant for high-resistivity soils in the upper frequency range. For broadband PLC channels, H(f) strongly depends on the soil model for frequencies below 10MHz or so, but is relatively insensitive to this parameter at higher frequencies. The average channel attenuation is more affected by soil model and soil parameters than the achievable data rate. Also, the voltage definition assumed in the derivation of the per-unit-length parameters of the line has little influence on the results. A comparison between different formulations traditionally used in PLC channel modeling indicates that the admittance associated with a finitely conducting ground should not be neglected in the modeling of broadband PLC channels.

Vector OFDM Transmission Over Non-Gaussian Power Line Communication Channels

Most of the recent power line communication (PLC) systems and standards, both narrow-band and broadband, are based on orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM). This multiplexing scheme however suffers from the high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) which can considerably impact the energy efficiency, size and cost of PLC modems as well as cause electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) issues. This paper investigates the performance of vector OFDM (VOFDM), which has inherently better PAPR properties, over non-Gaussian broadband PLC channels equipped with two nonlinear preprocessors at the receiver. In addition, the low PAPR property of the VOFDM system is exploited to further enhance the efficiency of the nonlinear preprocessors. The achievable gains are studied in terms of the complementary cumulative distribution function of the PAPR, probability of noise detection error and the signal-to-noise ratio at the output of the nonlinear preprocessors. For comparison's sake, the performance of conventional OFDM systems is also presented throughout the paper. Results reveal that the proposed system is able to provide up to 2 dB saving in the transmit power relative to the conventional OFDM under same system conditions, which eventually also translates into a system that is more resilient to EMC limits, reduced cost and size of PLC modems. It is also shown that the achievable gains become more significant as the vector block (VB) size of the VOFDM system is increased.

Power Line Cable Transfer Function for the Broadband Power Line Communication Channel

PLC (Power line communications) uses the existing power line infrastructure for communication purposes. While the majority of recent contributions have discussed PLC for high data-rate applications like Internet access or multimedia communication serving a relatively small number of users, in this paper presents a novel approach to model the transfer function of electrical power lines for broadband power line communication. The model has been verified with practical measurements conducted on actual power networks.

Comparison between power line communication multipath model and coaxial cable interferometer theory

SUMMARYThe authors have studied a new method to find parameters of broadband power line communication channel model. Lossless power line communication channel model is compared with classical interferometers approach to develop this model. The authors also used coaxial cables to simulate a multipath channel, because it can behave like a lossless power line communication channel. Thus, measurements were carried out with a network analyzer to find S parameters. The modeling parameters, for the multipath model were found after using MATLAB software and classical interferometers approach. Then, theoretical and experimental results are presented and compared. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A Broadband Power-Line Communication System Design Scheme for Typical Tanzanian Low-Voltage Network

Information and communications technologies (ICTs) are gaining importance in developing countries. Power-line network is a potential infrastructure for ICT services provision. Power-lines are highly interconnected network with stochastic variation in number of branches. Under such distributed network conditions the design of a broadband power-line communication (BPLC) system is a challenge. In this paper a case study of an actual power-line network, representative of a low-voltage BPLC channel in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania is considered. We shall investigate the performance of such a low-voltage channel that uses orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technique with binary phase shift keying (BPSK) modulation scheme for communication. For sensitivity analysis, three different transmitter locations were chosen and receiver points were varied to identify the possible degraded performance scenarios. Analysis show that in the frequency bands of 100 MHz, the channel delay spread for such networks is about 4 mus, giving a maximum number of subchannels 4096 with 512 cyclic prefix. To improve the degraded performance scenarios, the concatenated Reed Solomon outer code with punctured convolution inner code was applied to the network. It was found that when the branches were terminated by its corresponding characteristic impedances the performance is improved by 10-20 dB compared to a corresponding uncoded system. On the contrary for a coded system when the branches were terminated either in low or higher impedances compared to branch characteristic impedances the improvement was greater than 2-15 dB. This study demonstrates that the specification proposed by IEEE-802.16 broadband wireless access working groups can be used for performance improvement of distributed low-voltage systems.

The Effects of Load Impedance, Line Length, and Branches in Typical Low-Voltage Channels of the BPLC Systems of Developing Countries: Transmission-Line Analyses

This paper presents the influence of line length, number of branches (distributed and concentrated), and terminal impedances on the performance of a low-voltage broadband power-line communication channel. For analyses, the systems chosen are typical low-voltage power-line networks found in Tanzania. The parameters varied were the network's load impedances, direct line length (from transmitter to receiver), branched line lengths, and number of branches. From the frequency responses of the transfer functions (ratio of the received and transmitted signal), it is seen that the position of notches and peaks in the amplitude responses are affected by the aforementioned network parameters and topology. As a result, the time-domain responses are attenuated and distorted. Time-domain responses of power-line channels under various conditions are also investigated for a given pulse input at the transmitter. The observations presented in this paper could be useful for suitable power-line communication system design.

Modeling of Transfer Characteristics for the Broadband Power Line Communication Channel

This paper presents a novel approach to model the transfer function of electrical power lines for broadband power line communication. In this approach, the power line is approximated as a transmission line and the two intrinsic parameters, the characteristic impedance and the propagation constants, are derived based on the lumped-element circuit model. Using these intrinsic parameters, the transfer characteristics for a N-branch power distribution network are derived based on the scattering matrix method. Detail derivation of this line model is given in this paper. The model has been verified with practical measurements conducted on actual power networks. It is demonstrated that the model accurately determine the line characteristics under different network configuration and when different household appliances are connected.