Paper Info
Title
Impact of Channel Disturbances on Current Narrowband Power Line Communications and Lessons to Be Learnt for the Future Technologies.
Abstract
The electricity network is a complex communication medium with properties that depend on both the topology of the grid and the usage pattern of the connected devices. These devices generate channel disturbances during normal operation, which need to be overcome by power line communications (PLC) transmission technologies for ensuring communication. This paper analyzes the influence of the channel disturbances on the performance of the physical layer of the main narrowband PLC technologies approved by international communication organisms and currently deployed in Europe: PoweRline Intelligent Metering Evolution (PRIME) 1.3.6, PRIME 1.4 and G3-PLC. The methodology of this paper applies a standardized test method, metrics and a set of representative channel disturbances defined by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Moreover, noise recordings from field measurements in an environment equipped with distributed energy resources (DER) complete the subset of the types of noise used in the study. This paper develops a replicable, fully automated, and cost optimized test scenario, based on an innovative Virtual PLC Laboratory, which provides a replicable and automated test process, where a wide range of channel disturbances can be accurately replicated, and the performance of the PLC technologies can be compared under the same conditions. The results of this paper provide important conclusions to be applied in the development of future PLC technologies.
Year
DOI
Venue
2019
10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2924806
IEEE ACCESS
Keywords
Field
DocType
Channel capacity,communication channels,communications technology,communication networks,decoding,electricity supply industry,narrowband,network function virtualization,noise measurement,OFDM modulation,physical layer,smart devices,smart grids,telecommunication network reliability
Narrowband,Computer science,Electricity,Communication channel,Computer network,Electronic engineering,Scenario testing,Physical layer,Distributed generation,Metering mode,Grid
Journal
Volume
ISSN
Citations 
7
2169-3536
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
0
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Asier Llano100.34
David de la Vega2187.89
Itziar Angulo3738.58
Laura Marron400.34