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In this paper, we propose a novel approach to enhance spectral efficiency in communication systems by dynamically adjusting the mapping between cyclic permutation coding (CPC) and its injected form. By monitoring channel conditions such as interference levels and impulsive noise strength, the system optimises the coding scheme to maximise data transmission reliability and efficiency. The CPC method employed in this work maps information bits onto non-binary symbols in a cyclic manner, aiming to improve the Hamming distance between mapped symbols. To address challenges such as low data rates inherent in permutation coding, injection techniques are introduced by removing δ column(s) from the CPC codebook. Comparative analyses demonstrate that the proposed dynamic adaptation scheme outperforms conventional permutation coding and injection schemes. Additionally, we present a generalised mathematical expression to describe the relationship between the spectral efficiencies of both coding schemes. This dynamic approach ensures efficient and reliable communication in environments with varying levels of interference and impulsive noise, highlighting its potential applicability to systems like power line communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybridisation of networks is a trend that will continue to evolve for more efficient communication solutions. Hybrid power line communication (PLC) and wireless networks deployed for the Internet of Things (IoT) applications have improved the efficiency of low-power and lossy networks (LLNs). State-of-the-art solutions on hybrid networks are mainly application specific and does not provide a mathematical model to evaluate the network performance. Furthermore, the parallel PLC and wireless networks result in more power consumption due to the additional circuitry required to support and switch between two networks. There is a need for a generalized study on hybrid network architectures. A mathematical model must be developed to evaluate the performance of hybrid networks. Unlike parallel PLC and wireless networks, some intermediate solutions must be proposed that can offer the benefits of wired and wireless networks without increasing power consumption and circuit complexity. The paper presents a generalized study on hybrid network architectures. A hybrid network has been proposed that can offer the benefits of wired and wireless networks in the best possible way. A novel Markov-based stochastic model has been developed to evaluate the reliability of hybrid network designs. The analytical results obtained from Continuous Time Markov Chains (CTMC) have been validated by simulation using MATLAB. Spectral and energy efficiency have been evaluated for the hybrid designs along with a trade-off analysis. The proposed hybrid network (with 50% jump nodes being hybridized) is 33.53% more reliable for data transmission than parallel wired and wireless networks after 100 hours of operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multiple input multiple output (MIMO) power line communication (PLC) model for industrial facilities was developed that uses the physics of a bottom-up model but can be calibrated like top-down models. The PLC model considers 4-conductor cables (three-phase conductors and a ground conductor) and has several load types, including motor loads. The model is calibrated to data using mean field variational inference with a sensitivity analysis to reduce the parameter space. The results show that the inference method can accurately identify many of the model parameters, and the model is accurate even when the network is modified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the cross-sectional results of analyzes of authentic conducted disturbances introduced into public power networks by various types of loads installed at end users. The foundation for the research was a set of 260 identified cases of Power Line Communication (PLC) transmission disturbances based on the Open Smart Grid Protocol (OSGP) technology, which were recorded in the urban network of the distribution system operator covering over 400,000 smart meters. The paper presents a quantitative assessment of the share of loads that most often cause problems with transmission efficiency. Moreover, a qualitative assessment of the detected disturbance cases was carried out in terms of conditions relating to the structure of the power grid and real transmission levels and disturbance levels. The authors made a pioneering analysis in the so-called “communication path” where the PLC communication disturbance was identified, i.e., from the installation point of the PLC concentrator to the metering point where the energy meter, with which the connection was lost, was installed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power line infrastructure is available almost everywhere. Positioning systems aim to estimate where a device or target is. Consequently, there may be an opportunity to use power lines for positioning purposes. This survey article reports the different efforts, working principles, and possibilities for implementing positioning systems relying on power line infrastructure for power line positioning systems (PLPS). Since Power Line Communication (PLC) systems of different characteristics have been deployed to provide communication services using the existing mains, we also address how PLC systems may be employed to build positioning systems. Although some efforts exist, PLPS are still prospective and thus open to research and development, and we try to indicate the possible directions and potential applications for PLPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Conducted disturbances in the 2–500 kHz range are becoming a relevant phenomenon in the low-voltage (LV) distribution grid. • There are no measurement use cases (MUCs) determining which measurement methods should be in the 2–500 kHz range to characterize conducted emissions. • This paper proposes 5 MUCs for monitoring/characterizing conducted emissions in the LV grid. • This work evaluates 15 measurement methods to select the most suitable ones for each MUC. • This paper aims to contribute to electromagnetic compatibility standardization in the LV grid. Conducted disturbances in the 2–500 kHz frequency range are increasingly becoming a relevant interference phenomenon in the low-voltage (LV) distribution grid, impacting connected equipment and power line communications. Current standards and research publications propose various measurement methods, but specific measurement use cases (MUCs) for this frequency range are lacking, with only generic power quality use cases defined in IEC TS 63222–1 and IEC TS 63222–2. This paper addresses this gap by identifying measurement needs in the 2–500 kHz range, defining novel MUCs to meet these needs, and analyzing existing measurement methods to select the most appropriate for each MUC. In addition, this paper proposes five MUCs for monitoring conducted emissions in the LV grid, detailing the requirements of measurement methods, the grid areas each MUC covers, and their correspondence with generic use cases. To select the most appropriate measurement methods for each MUC, 15 measurement methods from standards or research works are compiled and evaluated experimentally in this paper, assessing their feasibility for the proposed novel MUCs. This paper aims at contributing to electromagnetic compatibility standardization in the LV grid, by proposing guidelines for monitoring and assessing conducted emissions in the 2–500 kHz range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mixture of wireless and power line communications (PLC) is vital for implementing new applications in smart grid and vehicular communications. In this work, we investigate the performance of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) based dual-hop hybrid communication systems with decode-and-forward relay. The wireless channel is characterized by Nakagami-m fading under an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN), while the PLC channels are characterized by Log-normal distribution with Bernoulli Gaussian noise including both background and impulsive noise components. New closed-form expressions for the outage probability, the asymptotic outage probability and ergodic capacity are derived and verified via extensive representative simulations. For more insights on the outage performance, we analyze the diversity order. Additionally, we proposed a power allocation optimization technique to achieve an outage-optimal performance. The results show that the system outage probability improves as the impulsive noise index and the arrival probability of the impulsive component of the PLC additive noise decrease, while their effect is negligible on the ergodic capacity. Finally, the performance of the proposed system is compared against a benchmark OMA-based system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Noise modeling in power line communications has recently drawn the attention of researchers. However, when characterizing the noise process in narrowband communications, previous works have only focused on small-scale phenomena involving fine-grained details. Nevertheless, the communication link's reliability is also affected by long-term noise phenomena that might affect transfer rates at higher layers as well. This paper addresses the problem of long-term noise characterization for narrowband power line communications and provides a statistical analysis of the long-term trends affecting the noise levels. We present a statistical description of the noise process in the time and frequency domains based on real field measurements in the FCC band (10 kHz–490 kHz). The collected data comprises more than 1.8 billion samples taken from three different locations over a time period of approximately ten days. The noise samples have been statistically analyzed by considering stationarity, autocorrelation, and independence. Although our results—being unprecedented—are interesting per se, they improve the noise pattern knowledge, thus paving the way for the design and implementation of more robust PLC protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Channel coding provides numerous advantages to digital communications. One of such advantages is error correcting capabilities. This, however, comes at the expense of coding rate, which is a function of the codebook's cardinality |C| or number of coded information bits and the codeword length M. In order to achieve high coding rate, we hereby report a channel coding approach that is capable of error correction under power line communications (PLC) channel conditions, with permutation coding as the coding scheme of choice. The approach adopts the technique of unequal error correction for binary codes, but with the exception that non-binary permutation codes are employed here. As such, certain parts of the information bits are coded with permutation symbols, while transmitting other parts uncoded. Comparisons with other conventional permutation codes are presented, with the proposed scheme exhibiting a relatively competitive performance in terms of symbol error rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart Grid is a new concept that seeks to articulate the electrical energy and communications systems as a unified system for the optimization of energy consumption in the world, where one of the most accepted technologies for the transmission of information in residential environments is Power Line Coomunicatios (PLC). The objective of this article is to propose a model supported by queuing theory, which allows evaluating the behavior of multiclass traffic in a HAN (Home Area Network) under the HomePlug AV (HPAV) standard, which is one of the most important standards. of PLC technology. HPAV is considered an efficient standard in hostile conditions for the transmission of information, such as occurs when transmitting through the electrical network, which is why it is very feasible the emergence of packet damming in each node that is part of the PLC network Due to the mechanisms of access to the medium and the availability of a single collision domain, affecting the performance of the network as the number of nodes increases. In view of the above, it is vitally important to have a model that allows describing the behavior that may occur within the PLC network. According to the results obtained, the proposed model allows estimating parameters such as arrival times, waiting times in queue, attention times, probability of packet loss, throughput, number of lost packets, among other values related to the performance of the net. Although the model can be considered of great help for research work related to PLC communications, it could be combined with other more advanced analysis techniques, in order to obtain more profound results and in more complex contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a theoretical study on the influence of a multi-grounded neutral on the transmission of narrowband power-line communication (PLC) signals through a two-wire medium-voltage distribution line. Three different methods are proposed to calculate the transfer function of the line in the 3–500 kHz range: (i) nodal admittance method; (ii) travelling wave method; (iii) electrically-short line approach. The validity, advantages and shortcomings of each method are presented and discussed. It is shown that improving the grounding impedance at the transmitter and receiver locations will contribute to reducing the channel attenuation. It is also shown that the number of intermediate grounding points along the neutral is more relevant for the attenuation of PLC signals than their impedance. In general, increasing such number will always reduce the attenuation in frequencies where the line is electrically short. A similar behavior is observed at the higher end of the 3–500 kHz range provided the grounding interval is less than 300 m, which is half wavelength of the 500 kHz frequency. If the separation between grounding points is greater than that, reducing the number of grounding points is likely to reduce the average channel attenuation, but at the cost of introducing multiple resonant frequencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the inherent serial nature of successive cancellation list (SCL) decoding results in a long latency, belief propagation (BP) decoding for polar codes has drawn attention for high-throughput applications. However, its error correction performance is inferior to that of SCL decoding. Therefore, the bit-flipping strategy has been recently applied to BP decoding, which can approach the SCL decoding performance through multiple additional decoding attempts. The original BP flip (BPF) decoding suffers from an inaccurate identification of erroneous bits by a fixed flip set (FS), which has been improved by the generalized BPF (GBPF) decoding. In this article, the GBPF decoding is extended to support multiple bits being flipped in one decoding attempt. In addition, for two types of decoding errors: detected errors and undetected errors, we propose two novel methods to more effectively identify erroneous bits. For detected errors, the concept of loop sets is defined and a loop-based identification method is introduced based on the study of error patterns of BP decoding. On the other hand, a method to generate a more accurate fixed FS is proposed for undetected errors, which considers the bit error distribution under BP decoding. Combining the two methods, the GBPF with merged sets (GBPF-MS) decoding can achieve the SCL-8 performance and outperforms the state-of-the-art BPF, BP list, and SC flip (SCF) decoding, for polar codes with length 1024 and information rate 1/2. Implemented by 40nm CMOS technology, the proposed GBPF-MS decoder with ten flips exhibits an average throughput of 4.19 Gbps at 2.5 dB, which is $1.6\times $ and $1.72\times $ faster than the state-of-the-art SCL-4 and SCF decoders, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arriving at a good combination of coding and modulation schemes that can achieve good error correction constitutes a challenge in digital communication systems. In this work, we explore the combination of permutation coding (PC) and pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) for mitigating channel errors in the presence of background noise and jitter. Since PAM is characterised with bi-polar constellations, Euclidean distance is a good choice for predicting the performance of such coded modulation setup. In order to address certain challenges facing PCs, we therefore introduce injections in the coding system, together with a modified form of PAM system. This modification entails constraining the PAM constellations to the size of the codeword's symbol. The results obtained demonstrate the strength of the modified coded PAM system over the conventional PC coded PAM system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance of belief propagation list (BPL) decoding of polar codes is related to the selection of $L$ factor graphs (FGs), which have the least number of girths. However, the straightforward search of such FGs is of high complexity. To achieve good performance with reasonable complexity, we propose an efficient method to find FGs with the least number of length-12 loops in all permuted FGs. Since some length-12 loops have been destroyed by redundant decoding operations, the corresponding FGs can be simplified to different numbers of length-12 loops. Thanks to the proposed loop simplification (LS), BPL decoding is now based on more efficient FGs, resulting in better performance and lower average decoding latency than the state-of-the-art. Numerical results have shown that the performance improvement is 0.15 dB when frame error ratio (FER) is $10^{-4}$ , for $(1024, 512)$ codes with $L=64$. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Broadband Power Line Communications (PLC) is an attractive area for providing broadband access in facilities where mains are already deployed, such as factories, buildings, houses, etc. In such systems, the design of efficient algorithms for synchronization, channel estimation and equalization is of great importance for reliable communications. Although there is a large amount of research done in channel estimation and equalization for wireless communication systems, the PLC channel has particular features that prevent from directly applying the techniques often used in wireless systems. In this way, PLC channels commonly present frequency selective fading, impulsive noise and coloured noise. Furthermore, some previous algorithms have effectively dealt with undesired channel effects but they imply a high computational complexity and cost, thus limiting their practical applicability. This work proposes real-time FPGA-based (Field-Programmable Gate Array) architecture, designed to implement channel estimation and equalization in broadband PLC. The approach is based on a Wavelet-OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) modulation, also known as FBMC (Filter Bank Multi-Carrier), where cross-correlation techniques have been applied on the Zadoff-Chu sequences used as pilot signals or preambles. The architecture has been implemented in a Xilinx XC7K325T FPGA, and experimental tests in a lab environment successfully show that the proposal can effectively recover the transmitted signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communications over power lines in the frequency range above 2 MHz, commonly referred to as broadband (BB) power line communications (PLC), has been the focus of increasing research attention and standardization efforts in recent years. BB-PLC channels are characterized by a dominant colored non-Gaussian additive noise, as well as by periodic variations of the channel impulse response and of the noise statistics. In this paper, we study the fundamental rate limits for BB-PLC channels by bounding their capacity while accounting for the unique properties of these channels. We obtain explicit expressions for the derived bounds for several BB-PLC noise models, and illustrate the resulting fundamental limits in a numerical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Nowadays, power line communication (PLC) technology is receiving a renewed attention in many application fields. In particular, PLC is quite attractive for what concerns novel paradigms as smart microgrid systems and smart buildings. This paper deals with a proposal of a PLC scheme that efficiently allows multicast services based on the use of an efficient network coding (NC) scheme. Furthermore, an analytical approach is outlined to pursue the performance optimization of the proposed solution. Finally, the good behavior of the proposed NC approach is highlighted by presenting performance comparisons with the classical NC alternative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifth generation mobile networks will be designed to utilize the benefits of the large available bandwidth in the mmWave spectrum. Commercialization of 5G mmWave technology will be launched soon, due to progress in RF hardware and large efforts on integration of mmWave beamforming technologies in standardization bodies such as 3GPP. The main challenges of mmWave mobility in 5G result from the impact of fast-varying channels on beamforming systems. However, the corresponding feasibility has not yet been fully investigated. In this article we first identify and review the technical challenges that remain in 5G mmWave mobile networks. We then present sample measurements of outdoor mmWave channels, and emulate the mobile system operation in them. We discuss insights, based on these results, on under what circumstances supporting mmWave mobility is feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-beam concurrent transmission is one of promising solutions for a millimeter-wave (mmWave) network to provide seamless handover, robustness to blockage, and continuous connectivity. Nevertheless, one of the major obstacles in multi-beam concurrent transmissions is the optimization of beam pair selection, which is essential to improve the mmWave network performance. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a novel heterogeneous multi-beam cloud radio access network (HMBCRAN) architecture which provides seamless mobility and coverage for mmWave networks. We also design a novel acquirement method for candidate beam pair links (BPLs) in HMBCRANs architecture, which reduces user power consumption, signaling overhead, and overall time consumption. Based on HMBCRANs architecture and the resulted candidate BPLs for each user equipment, a beam pair selection optimization problem aiming at maximizing network sum rate is formulated. To find the solution efficiently, the considered problem is reformulated as a non-operative game with local interaction, which only needs local information exchanging among players. A decentralized algorithm based on HMBCRANs architecture and binary log-linear learning is proposed to obtain the optimal pure strategy Nash equilibrium of the proposed game, in which a concurrent multi-player selection scheme and an information exchanging protocol among players are developed to reduce the complexity and signal overheads. The stability, optimality, and complexity of the proposed algorithm are analyzed via theoretical and simulation method. The results prove that the proposed scheme has better convergence speed and sum rate against the state-of-the-art schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we address the problem of improving the medium access control (MAC) layer efficiency in indoor broadband power line communication networks. Several overheads in the MAC layer, like random back-offs and collision recovery, degrade the MAC efficiency. To reduce these overheads, we apply in-band full-duplexing (IBFD), which enables medium-aware transmission at all the network nodes. Specifically, we propose two new schemes called contention-free pre-sensing and mutual preamble detection to minimize the time spent during contentions and collisions. Considering the non-idealities of IBFD, we analytically show the feasibility of our solutions. We further design a comprehensive simulation model with multiple priority data frames and Poisson network traffic arrival to emulate a real in-home network traffic. We then present numerical results for both the classical saturated network model and the comprehensive traffic model, to show through OMNeT++ simulations that our presented solutions achieve over 95% of the optimum MAC efficiency that can only be attained in the idealized case of no contentions or collisions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In many communications scenarios, the channel exhibits periodic characteristics, e.g., power line communications and interference-limited communications. Additionally, certain approximations for mobile radio channels over finite time intervals may result in periodic channel models. In this paper, we study pilot-aided joint estimation of the channel impulse response (CIR) and of the carrier frequency offset (CFO) for linear periodic channels, in which both the CIR and the noise statistics vary periodically in time. We first consider the joint maximum likelihood estimator (JMLE) for the CIR and the CFO, and discuss the practical drawbacks associated with this estimator. When the coefficients of the delay-Doppler spread function of the CIR are approximately sparse, we propose two estimation schemes with higher spectral efficiency and lower computational complexity compared with the JMLE, which are obtained by exploiting both the periodicity and the sparsity of the channel, without requiring a priori knowledge of the sparsity pattern. Finally, we study the design of pilot sequences aimed at improving the estimation performance in sparse periodic channels. Simulation studies corresponding to practical scenarios of the proposed estimators demonstrate that substantial benefits can be obtained by properly accounting for the sparsity and periodicity in the design of estimation schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although in-band full-duplexing (IBFD) has long been implemented in various communication media, it was only recently that an IBFD solution was presented for broadband power line communications (BB-PLCs). The maximum attainable echo suppression using this solution is, however, limited by the dynamic range of the analog-to-digital converter (ADC). To counter this critical constraint, we propose echo cancellation in the analog domain, while persisting with a low-complexity frequency domain digital echo estimation. By formulating an expression for the number of ADC bits lost in IBFD over a conventional half-duplex operation, we show that the ADC dynamic range is no longer a limiting factor for our solution. We further extend our solution to present an analog cancellation method for multiple-input multiple-output IBFD BB-PLC systems. Finally, we present simulation results of echo cancellation and data rate gains obtained under realistic in-home BB-PLC settings, to demonstrate that our solution is capable of doubling bidirectional transfer rates in a large number of the tested network conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel concatenated coding system for both narrowband and broadband power line communications (NB-PLC and BB-PLC) is proposed. The order of the inner and the outer codes switches from the G3-PLC standard and the interleaver is eliminated. The Error-and-erasure decoder (EED) is selected as the Reed-Solomon inner code is because the impulsive noises clearly mark the erasure positions with a threshold-based algorithm. The nonbinary convolutional outer code with vector symbol decoding (VSD) can correct longer burst errors. The results show that for BB-PLC, the bit error rate (BER) of RS (63,51) error-only (ED) with VSD is 1.5×10-5 and of EED-VSD is 9.0×10-9 at Eb/No 26 dB. For NB-PLC, the BER of ED-VSD is 7.9×10-5 and of EED-VSD is 2.2×10-8 at Eb/No 16 dB. Therefore, BER of EED-VSD is three to four orders of magnitude lower than ED-VSD. Moreover, NB-PLC reaches the desired BER around 10-7 at about 10 dB lower Eb/No than BB-PLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a synthetic statistical top-down MIMO power line communications channel model based on a pure phenomenological approach. The basic idea consists of directly synthesizing the experimental channel statistical properties to obtain an extremely compact model that requires a small set of parameters. The model is derived from the analysis of the in-home $2\times 3$ MIMO PLC channel data set obtained by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute specialist task force 410 measurement campaign in the band 1.8–100 MHz. The challenge of modeling the channel statistical correlation, exhibited among the frequencies and between the MIMO modes, in compact form is tackled and it is shown that a small set of parameters can be used to reconstruct such a correlation behavior. The model is validated and compared with the measured channels, showing a good agreement in terms of average channel gain, root-mean-square delay spread, coherence bandwidth, and channel capacity distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Adaptive filters are commonly used in many signal processing and communications systems. In many practical digital communications scenarios, including, for example, interference-limited wireless and wireline communications, as well as narrowband power line communications, the considered signals are jointly cyclostationary. Yet, most works on adaptive filtering of cyclostationary signals used ad hoc application of adaptive algorithms designed for stationary signals, e.g., the least-mean-squares (LMS). It is known that these algorithms may not converge for jointly cyclostationary signals. In this paper, we rigorously study the optimal adaptive filtering of jointly cyclostationary signals. We first identify the relevant objective as the time-averaged mean-squared error criterion (TA-MSE), and obtain an adaptive algorithm as the stochastic approximation of the TA-MSE minimizer. When the considered signals are jointly stationary, the algorithm specializes to the standard LMS algorithm. We provide a comprehensive transient and steady-state performance analysis without imposing a specific distribution on the considered signals, and derive conditions for convergence and stability. The algorithm, which we call time-averaged LMS, is applied to practical scenarios in a simulations study, and an excellent agreement between the theoretical and the empirical performance is observed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To achieve error-free communication on the narrowband power line communication (NB-PLC) channel, there is need for constant measurement campaign and modeling of burst errors resulting from noise, perturbation and disturbances on the channel. This work thus reports a signal level measurement and First-Order Semi-Hidden Fritchman Markov modeling of the three major NB-PLC noise types for a typical South African residential and laboratory indoor low voltage environment. Two distinguishable disturbance scenarios: mildly disturbed and heavily disturbed were considered and Baum–Welch maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) algorithm is used to obtain the most probable model parameters that statistically depict the experimentally measured noise error sequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vehicular power line communication (VPLC) is being considered as a potential solution to mitigate the increase of complexity and cost of the automotive wiring harness caused by the growth of the number of electronic devices and sensors deployed inside vehicles. This is because VPLC reuses power cables for data communication and, thus, avoids the need for additional communication wires. However, this reuse does not come without problems. One of the challenges for VPLC is the time, frequency, and location dependence of the access impedance, which can cause severe impedance mismatch for the communication signal. Impedance mismatch degrades the signal-to-noise-power ratio at the communication receiver and thus affects transmission reliability. Due to the variable nature of the access impedance, a fixed matching circuit will be inefficient. Hence, in this work, we present an adaptive impedance-matching system, which improves the communication-signal transfer from the transmitting to the receiving device. The system is evaluated via simulations for a wide range of access-impedance test points and $S$- parameters of VPLC networks obtained in previous measurement campaigns. Our simulation results demonstrate that the presented adaptive matching system is able to achieve VPLC signal-power transfer within 30% of the theoretical optimum. This translates to a power gain, up to a factor of 10, which is larger than that of other solutions reported in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we introduce in-band full duplexing (IBFD) for broadband power line communication (BB-PLC) systems. Inspired by the use of IBFD in digital subscriber lines, Ethernet, cable communication, and recently in wireless communication, we investigate the constraints and requirements for a successful IBFD implementation in BB-PLC. We propose a two-stage IBFD structure consisting of an initial analog isolation using an active hybrid circuit, and a simplified mixed-domain digital echo cancellation procedure to suppress the self-interference. Furthermore, we enhance the digital cancellation filter to better adapt to linear periodically time-varying channel conditions, commonly encountered in PLC scenarios. We evaluate our solution under diverse power line channel and noise conditions to examine the overall data rate gains that can be achieved. Last, we extend IBFD to multiple-input multiple-output BB-PLC systems that enable faster and/or more robust data transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes an efficient channel impulse response (CIR)-based technique to detect topology changes in the power grid. The features of the proposed approach include the following aspects: (i) it is a software-only solution, not requiring any intervention on the current smart grid architecture; (ii) topology changes can be detected via a simple distributed algorithm that requires only local communications; and, (iii) both memory and computational footprints of the proposed solution are minimal. The above-mentioned features make this contribution notably appealing for the resource-constrained smart grid domain. Furthermore, the paper provides a detailed discussion of the introduced technique, accompanied by an implementation reflecting a realistic use case, and presents an extensive simulation campaign to show the quality and viability of the proposed approach. A unique feature of our solution is that it performs well even when the communication channel is affected by a high noise level. For instance, with noise levels below 100 dB μ V (the typical PLC noise power range), the proposed solution showed a ≈ 100 % detection rate. To the best of our knowledge, our solution is the first one proposing a fully CIR-based, distributed, deterministic algorithm for intrusion detection and localization. We believe that the performance and advantages of the proposed technique pave the way for further smart grid applications and solutions. • The paper proposes a novel solution to detect changes in grid. • The solution does not require any intervention in the current smart grid architecture. • The topology changes are detected via an (optimal) efficient distributed algorithm. • The memory and computational footprint of the proposed solution is minimal. • An extensive simulation campaign showed the quality and viability of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In-vehicle communications are emerging to play an important role in the continued development of reliable and efficient X-by-Wire applications in new vehicles. Since vehicle devices, sensors, and the electronic control unit (ECU) are already connected to power wires, the advancement of power line communications (PLCs) can provide a very low cost and virtually free platform for in-vehicle communications. In this paper, we propose a medium access control (MAC) protocol for vehicular PLC systems, where multiple nodes are competing for transmission over the direct current (dc) power line. The proposed protocol uses a combination of time and frequency multiplexing and consists of two key features: 1) a distributed channel selection policy to arbitrate packet transmission across different channels and provide robustness against interference and noise and 2) a distributed collision resolution algorithm to allow efficient nodes completion over selected channels. Specifically, the collision resolution algorithm is optimized with respect to the channel policy such that the success probability of transmission in each channel is maximized. Numerical results are also supplemented to validate the performance of the proposed protocol and provide useful guidelines for developing a robust contention-based MAC protocol for vehicular PLC systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ITU-T G.9904 standard, also known as PoweRline Intelligent Metering Evolution (PRIME), is a Power Line Communications standard for advanced metering, grid control and asset monitoring defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). In this paper, an analysis about how different characteristics of the communication channel and types of noise might affect the system performance is carried out. This study is based on simulations of the PRIME physical layer using different channel characteristics and transmission parameters. The conclusions obtained are very valuable for better understanding the behavior of the ITU-T G.9904 (PRIME) standard in the field, allowing future improvements in deployment strategies and equipment design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Power Line Communications (PLC) technology allows the use of the power grid in order to ensure the exchange of data among devices. This technology is particularly useful in those environments where wired technologies are preferable, mainly for reasons related to reliability of communications. However, although the PLC technology has been investigated by researchers in several fields, such as communication protocols and impact due to noise, this paper focuses on a little investigated issue: the power consumption of devices. It is shown an approach, based on fuzzy logic, that dynamically manages the amplitude of the signal, with which each node transmits, by processing the master-slave link quality measured and the master-slave distance. The main objective is to reduce the power consumption during transmissions by managing some very important network information related to noise (link quality) and the distance from which derives the channel attenuation. The controller has been implemented onMatlab/Simulink and subsequently integrated into the ADD1010 microcontroller, a power line System on Chip (SoC). The paper described two test-bed scenarios. The first has been realized in laboratory and the second is a real case study represented by a street lighting system in the city of Castellana Sicula, Italy. In both cases, the TH/WL ratio (number of packets received divided by the number of packets sent) and the power consumption of each device were measured. The obtained results show that network information, like noise and distance among devices, can be positively used in order to reduce the power consumption and the overall TH/WL of the network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The business of distribution system operators is rapidly evolving as the distribution grid is hosting more distributed energy resources. Technology for monitoring, control, and protecting the grid is progressively pervading the lower segment of the network. These changes require a performing communication infrastructure to enable data exchange among the control centers of the grid. The 7th Framework Program European Project INTEGRIS proposes a hybrid infrastructure—based on broadband power line (BPL), Wi-Fi, and fiber optics (FO)—to enable services for grid management. This mix of technologies provides a balanced tradeoff between investments and benefits, meeting most of the requirements of the smart grid. This paper investigates the technologies that could be adopted and describes the experimental assessment performed in an operational environment in Italy. Using this installation, transfer time, time synchronization accuracy, dependability, and throughput are evaluated and analyzed over a long-term campaign. Results show that the FO is the best communication media, able to provide a two-way latency of 3 ms (95 percentile), whereas BPL has a two-way latency of 57 ms (95 percentile —4 hops). Those results confirm that a careful selection of the technologies is required to satisfy requirements of smart grid. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this study, a channel model which is based on practical channel measurements obtained from electrical networks in Turkey is proposed for power line communication (PLC) systems. Experimental measurements are realized in different cities and various indoor places such as laboratory, university office and apartment house in order to achieve a general and appropriate PLC channel model for different locations and environments. Acquired data from the electric grid are stored on a database and PLC channel modelling process is carried out depending on these data through curve fitting methods. Moreover, parameters of the derived mathematical model are optimized by using artificial bee colony algorithm. Results show that the PLC channel model proposed in this study can be utilized to simulate PLC systems and to perform conformance tests of prototypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we propose an improved adaptive media access (MAC) layer routing algorithm for the broadband power line communication (BPLC) access network founded on the fixed basic approach routing algorithm, which is integrated within the IEEE P1901 standard. The proposed adaptive algorithm incorporates a new dynamically scaled threshold for the selection of the next hop station based on the information from the physical layer. Furthermore, the procedures for the route and the time allocation modifications during the connection setup and later adjustments are developed. Simulation of the new adaptive and existing fixed routing algorithm is performed on the model of a realistic BPLC network using the OMNeT++-based BPLC cross-layer simulator BPlcSim. The simulation results showed that the adaptive routing algorithm outperforms the fixed routing in all aspects, since each station can perform routing functions and make the selection of the most reliable next hop station. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Binary matrix codes with restricted row and column weights are a desirable method of coded modulation for power line communication. In this work, we construct such matrix codes that are obtained as products of affine codes--cosets of binary linear codes. Additionally, the constructions have the property that they are systematic. Subsequently, we generalize our construction to irregular product of affine codes, where the component codes are affine codes of different rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and power line communications (PLCs) are used in this work to implement a smart home control network. The goals are to reduce the impact of wireless interference on a smart home control network and unnecessary energy consumption of a smart home. An isolated WSN with one coordinator, which is integrated into the PLC transceiver, is established in each room. The coordinator is responsible for transferring environmental parameters obtained by WSNs to the management station via PLCs. The control messages for home appliances are directly transferred using PLCs rather than WSNs. According to the experimental results, the impact of wireless interference on the proposed smart home control network is substantially mitigated. Additionally, a smart control algorithm for lighting systems and an analysis of the illumination of a fluorescent lamp were presented. The energy saving of lighting systems relative to those without smart control was evaluated. Numerical results indicate that the electricity consumption on a sunny or cloudy day can be reduced by at least 40% under the smart control. Moreover, a prototype for the proposed smart home control network with the smart control algorithm was implemented. Experimental tests demonstrate that the proposed system for smart home control networks is practically feasible and performs well. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An experimental work aimed at assessing the outdoor-to-indoor propagation losses at 169 MHz is described in this paper. The building penetration loss, often considered as an additional constant value to be added to propagation losses in previous studies, is here on the contrary regarded as a random variable; its cumulative distribution is extracted from the measured data and is found to be approximately Gaussian. Moreover, in order to account for the critical installation conditions which may be experienced by indoor wireless devices in particular applications (e.g., wireless smart metering), an additional loss term, here indicated as installation loss, is introduced and its value is investigated in some reference cases. The achieved results are also embedded into a statistical procedure similar to those commonly adopted for wireless cellular networks planning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Power line communications (PLC) is the central communications technology for the realization of smart power grids. As the designated band for smart grid communications is the narrowband (NB) power line channel, NB-PLC has been receiving substantial attention in recent years. Narrowband power line channels are characterized by cyclic short-term variations of the channel transfer function (CTF) and strong noise with periodic statistics. In this paper, modeling the CTF as a linear periodically time-varying filter and the noise as an additive cyclostationary Gaussian process, we derive the capacity of discrete-time NB-PLC channels. As part of the capacity derivation, we characterize the capacity achieving transmission scheme, which leads to a practical code construction that approaches capacity. The capacity derived in this work is numerically evaluated for several NB-PLC channel configurations taken from previous works, and the results show that the optimal scheme achieves a substantial rate gain over a previously proposed ad-hoc scheme. This gain is due to optimally accounting for the periodic properties of the channel and the noise. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Generalized balanced tournament packings (GBTPs) extend the concept of generalized balanced tournament designs introduced by Lamken and Vanstone (1989). In this paper, we establish the connection between GBTPs and a class of codes called equitable symbol weight codes (ESWCs). The latter were recently demonstrated to optimize the performance against narrowband noise in a general coded modulation scheme for power line communications. By constructing classes of GBTPs, we establish infinite families of optimal ESWCs with code lengths greater than alphabet size and whose narrowband noise error-correcting capability to code length ratios do not diminish to zero as the length grows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power line communications (PLC) has been drawing considerable interest in recent years due to the growing interest in smart grid implementation. Specifically, network control and grid applications are allocated the frequency band of 0-500 kHz, commonly referred to as the narrowband PLC channel. This frequency band is characterized by strong periodic noise which results in 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 power line noise, as well as the information signal, digitally modulated using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing. An adaptive implementation for the proposed receiver is presented as well. The proposed receiver is compared to existing receivers via analysis and simulation. The results show that the receiver proposed in this work obtains a substantial performance gain over previously proposed receivers, without requiring any coordination with the transmitter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Power line communications (PLC) has attracted considerable attention for supporting smart grid applications. Since it reuses the existing grid infrastructure, it offers cost advantages over alternative communications methods and gives electric utilities control over the communications medium. Furthermore, the "through-the-grid" property of PLC extends its possible use beyond mere communications. Since the PLC signals are bound to travel through the power grid, they can also be used for inference tasks, such as online diagnostics of power line integrity. In this paper, we consider such an inference application of PLC, enabled by modern signal processing. We assume a power grid at whose edges PLC devices are deployed to form a PLC network for purposes such as advanced meter reading. We are interested in retrieving the physical power-grid topology, i.e., the connections and lengths of power lines reaching to the locations of the PLC devices. To this end, we propose the combination of PLC-based ranging with inference based on end-to-end measurements. In the context of communication networks, the latter is known as tomography and hence, we refer to the developed method as power grid tomography. For the purpose of ranging we formulate a new super-resolution ranging algorithm specifically tailored for signal propagation through power lines. Numerical results for low-voltage distribution grid examples demonstrate the successful reconstruction of the grid topology by the proposed power grid tomography method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that communication systems are susceptible to strong impulsive noises. To combat this, convolutional coding has long served as a cost-efficient tool against moderately frequent memoryless impulses with given statistics. Nevertheless, impulsive noise statistics are difficult to model accurately and are typically not time-invariant, making the system design challenging. In this paper, because of the lack of knowledge regarding the probability density function of impulsive noises, an efficient decoding scheme was devised for single-carrier narrowband communication systems; a design parameter was incorporated into recently introduced joint erasure marking and Viterbi decoding algorithm, dubbed the metric erasure Viterbi algorithm (MEVA). The proposed scheme involves incorporating a well-designed clipping operation into a Viterbi algorithm, in which the clipping threshold must be appropriately set. In contrast to previous publications that have resorted to extensive simulations, in the proposed scheme, the bit error probability performance associated with the clipping threshold was characterized by deriving its Chernoff bound. The results indicated that when the clipping threshold was judiciously selected, the MEVA can be on par with its optimal maximum-likelihood decoding counterpart under fairly general circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of multiple frequency shift keying modulation with permutation codes addresses the problem of permanent narrowband noise disturbance in a power line communications system. In this paper, we extend this coded modulation scheme based on permutation codes to general codes and introduce an additional new parameter that more precisely captures a code's performance against permanent narrowband noise. As a result, we define a new class of codes, namely, equitable symbol weight codes, which are optimal with respect to this measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The IEC 61850 standard allows for a structured grid automation system where critical tasks like grid protections, renewable energy sources management, synchronized measurements, and monitoring applications share the communication network. So far, the use of IEC 61850 has been mainly limited to the primary substations, but more interesting could be the coordinated actions between primary and secondary substations in order to quickly react to faults and to reduce service downtimes for final customers. Unfortunately, the communication networks between primary and secondary substations are today only partially deployed. Considering this context, the broadband power line over medium voltage grid (MV-BPL) could be a suitable solution for closing the communication gaps between substations that use IEC 61850. The main objective of this paper is to present the outcomes of the first phase of a project whose final goal is the implementation in real grids of distribution grid automation based on IEC 61850. A new and comprehensive set of experiments on a real (and in service) medium voltage grid in Italy has been designed and carried out. The practicability of IEC 61850 communication over the distribution grid is assessed comparing the time characteristics of the MV-BPL against the transfer time classes of the IEC 61850, determining which IEC 61850 services may be transported over MV-BPL. The experimental long-term analysis highlights that more than 90% of the service requests are transferred on the network with a round-trip time lower than 40 ms even in the case of four hops, a time which is compatible with the IEC 61850 fast automatic interactions on MV grid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]