Channel Characterization and SC-FDM Modulation for PLC in High-Voltage Power Lines

Del-Puerto-Flores, J. Alberto; José Luis Naredo; Fernando Peña-Campos; Del-Valle-Soto, Carolina; Valdivia, Leonardo; Ramón Parra-Michel

doi:10.3390/fi14050139

Channel Characterization and SC-FDM Modulation for PLC in High-Voltage Power Lines

Journal

Future Internet

ISSN

1999-5903

Date Issued

2022

Author(s)

José Luis Naredo

Fernando Peña-Campos

Ramón Parra-Michel

Type

Resource Types::text::journal::journal article

DOI

10.3390/fi14050139

URL

https://scripta.up.edu.mx/handle/20.500.12552/4029

Abstract

Digital communication over power lines is an active field of research and most studies in this field focus on low-voltage (LV) and medium-voltage (MV) power systems. Nevertheless, as power companies are starting to provide communication services and as smart-grid technologies are being incorporated into power networks, high-voltage (HV) power-line communication has become attractive. The main constraint of conventional HV power-line carrier (PLC) systems is their unfeasibility for being migrated to wideband channels, even with a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In this scenario, none of the current linear/non-linear equalizers used in single carrier schemes achieve the complete compensation of the highly dispersive conditions, which limits their operation to 4 kHz channels. In this paper, a new PLC-channel model is introduced for transmission lines incorporating the effects of the coupling equipment. In addition, the use of the single-carrier frequency-division modulation (SC-FDM) is proposed as a solution to operate PLC systems in a wide bandwidth, achieving transmission speeds above those of the conventional PLC system. The results presented in this paper demonstrate the superior performance of the SC-FDM-PLC over conventional PLC systems, obtaining a higher transmission capacity in 10 to 30 times.