Working Group on Power Line Communications

“Study, evaluation and development of efficient communication systems over the indoor power line distribution networks”. Funded by the CICYT (Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología). Main researcher: Dr. Luis Díez del Río. 2003-2005. hide details

Description

At the time of starting the project the indoor broadband power-line channel was known to be time-variant, but only a long-term variation due to the connection and disconnection of electrical appliances was considered. During a previous research project, a periodic short-term time variation was discovered. According to this scenario, the objectives or the project were:

To characterize the short-term variation of the channel.
To develop efficient transmission and multiple access control (MAC) schemes for this communication channel.
To implement a broadband modem prototype.

Results

The main results of this project were:

The development of a measurement methodology capable of capturing the periodical short-term variation of the channel response.
The development of a measurement methodology for the analysis of the multiple components of the noise.
The development of a channel model consisting of a linear and periodically time-varying (LPTV) filter plus a cyclostationarly noise term.
The assesment of the performance of frequency-division and time-division MAC schemes.
The analysis and development of synchronization and channel estimation techniques suitable for DMT/OFDM systems working in these scenarios.
The development of a DMT modem prototype.
The analysis of the impact of the channel response variation in the performance of DMT/OFDM systems and the determination of the most appropriate values for the main modulation parameters.

Details about 1, 2 and 3 can be found in:

F. J. Cañete, J. A. Cortés, L. Díez, and J. T. Entrambasaguas, “Analysis of the cyclic short-term variation of indoor power line channels,” IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 24, no. 7, pp. 1327–1338, 2006.
J. A. Cortés, L. Díez, F. J. Cañete, and J. J. Sánchez-Martínez, “Analysis of the Indoor Broadband Power-Line Noise Scenario” to appear in the IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility.

Details about 4 can be found in:

J. A. Cortés, L. Díez, F. J. Cañete, and J. T. Entrambasaguas, “Analysis of DMT-FDMA as a multiple access scheme for broadband indoor power-line communications,” IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 1184-1192, 2006.
A. M. Tonello, J. A. Cortés, and S. D’Alessandro, “Optimal Time Slot Design in an OFDM-TDMA System over Power-Line Time-Variant Channels ,” in Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Power Line Communications and Its Applications (ISPLC), 2009, Dresden, Germany.

Details about 5 can be found in:

J. A. Cortés, L. Díez, E. Martos-Naya, F. J. Cañete, and J. T. Entrambasaguas, “Analysis and Design of Timing Recovery Schemes for DMT Systems over Indoor Power-Line Channels,” EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing, vol. 2007, Article ID 48931, 11 pages, 2007.
J. A. Cortés, A. M. Tonello,and L. Díez, “Comparative Analysis of Pilot-based Channel Estimators for DMT Systems Over Indoor Power-line Channels,” in Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Power Line Communications and Its Applications (ISPLC),2007, Pisa, Italy, pp.396-400.

Details about 6 can be found in:

J. L. Carmona, F.J.Cañete, J.A.Cortés, and L.Díez, “A DMT Modem Prototype for Broadband PLC”, in Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Power Line Communications and Its Applications (ISPLC), 2006, Orlando, USA, vol., no., pp.56-61.

Details about 7 can be found in:

J. A. Cortés, L. Díez, F. J. Cañete, J. J. Sánchez-Martínez and J. T. Entrambasaguas “Performance analysis of DMT/OFDM modulation on indoor broadband PLC channels”, submitted to Elsevier Digital Signal Processing (September 2009).

Working Group on Power Line Communications

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