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 this 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 size of the VOFDM system is increased

A Comparison of ICF and Companding for Impulsive Noise Mitigation in Powerline Communication Systems

In future smart cities, smart grid technologies which are usually enabled by Powerline Communication (PLC) techniques are required. However, data transmission over powerline channel traverses a non-Gaussian media due to the presence of Impulsive Noise (IN) operating at the frequencies of PLC system which can be deployed using the IEEE 1901, that uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). These OFDM signals have asymmetric amplitude distribution, which makes it difficult to identify and mitigate the IN presence. Converting the amplitude distribution to a uniform distribution can enhance the ability to mitigate IN when nonlinear IN mitigation techniques such as blanking is applied. In this study, we apply Iterative Clipping and Filtering (ICF) and companding schemes which are Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) reduction techniques to enable symmetric amplitude distribution of the OFDM signals. With an optimization search for the optimal blanking amplitude for the two PAPR reduction schemes. Results show that companding scheme achieves 4dB gain in terms of received signal-to-noise ratio better than ICF after the blanking was used to remove the IN

Effective noise cancellation using single-carrier FDMA transmission in power-line channels

© 2014 IEEE. In power-line channels, impulsive noise (IN) is commonly reduced using a blanking technique in which the received signal is zeroed whenever it exceeds a certain threshold value. Determining an appropriate threshold, however, is critical to the performance of this technique as erroneously blanking unaffected parts of the signal will significantly degrade system performance. In this paper, we show that the performance of this technique is sensitive not only to the blanking threshold but also to the transmitted signal's peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). With this in mind, we propose to implement single-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA), which inherently has low PAPR, and address the issue of optimizing the blanking threshold for such a technique. The results reveal that significant improvements can be achieved with respect to the probability of blanking error, as well as achieving up to 4 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) improvement relative to the conventional orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing case. Furthermore, it will be shown that in some cases of SC-FDMA, not only can a significant SNR enhancement be achieved but it is also possible to optimally blank IN irrespective of the noise characteristics

Preprocessing-based impulsive noise reduction for power-line communications

Signal blanking is a common technique for mitigating impulsive noise (IN) in power-line communications. When signal samples unaffected by IN are erroneously blanked, part of the useful signal will be lost and performance will degrade. In this paper, we show that the performance of this technique is sensitive not only to the blanking threshold but also to the signal's peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). We thus propose enhancing the capability of the conventional blanking technique by preprocessing the signal at the transmitter. With this in mind, a closed-form analytical expression for the probability of blanking error is then derived and the problem of blanking threshold optimization is addressed. The results reveal that the proposed technique is able to minimize the probability of blanking error dramatically and can provide up to 3.5-dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) improvement relative to the conventional technique. Furthermore, it will be shown that if the transmitted signal's PAPR is maintained below a certain threshold, then not only can a considerable SNR enhancement be achieved but it is also possible to completely alleviate the need for any prior knowledge about the IN characteristics in order to optimally blank it. © 2014 IEEE

Techniques for broadband power line communications: impulsive noise mitigation and adaptive modulation

The development of power line communication systems for broadband multimedia applications requires a comprehensive knowledge of the channel characteristics and the main peculiarities that may influence the communication over this channel. PLC has the potential to become the preferred connectivity solution to homes and offices. Additionally, indoor power line networks can serve as local area networks offering high-speed data, audio, video and multimedia applications. The PLC technology eliminates the need for new wires by using an already-existing infrastructure that is much more pervasive than any other wired system. Power line networks, however, present a hostile channel for communication signals. Noise, multipath, selective fading and attenuation are well-known peculiarities of power line grids and. Particularly, random impulsive noise characterized with short durations and very high amplitudes is identified as one of the major impairments that degrade the performance of PLC systems. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is the technique of choice for broadband PLC systems. OFDM minimizes the effects of multipath and provides high robustness against selective fading. It is also powerful in impulsive noise environments and performs better than single-carrier modulation methods. If an OFDM symbol is affected by impulsive noise, the effect is spread over multiple subcarriers due to the discrete Fourier transform at the receiver. In order to achieve reliable outcomes, suitable channel and noise models must be used in the investigations. In this thesis, the power line channel transfer function is modelled using a multipath model that was proposed by Zimmermann and Dostert [1], [2]. This model describes the signal propagation scenario and attenuation effects in power line networks. To represent the actual noise scenario in power networks, the noise is classified into two main classes: background noise and impulsive noise. To reduce the effect of impulsive noise, conventional time domain nonlinearities are examined in this thesis under PLC environments. An adaptive-threshold selection method based on minimum bit-error rate (BER) is proposed. At the cost of additional complexity, the effect of impulsive noise is further mitigated using a novel joint time-domain/frequency-domain suppression technique. Since channel coding is essential for most telecommunication systems, we examine convolutional codes combined with interleaving in a PLC channel impaired with AWGN and impulsive noise. The results show substantial performance gains especially in heavily-disturbed environments, where signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gains of more than 15 dB can be achieved with a code rate of 1/3. Bit-interleaved convolutionally-coded OFDM completely eliminates the effect of impulsive noise in weakly-disturbed noise environments, while a negligible effect may remain in medium-disturbed environments. A new power-loading algorithm that minimizes the transmission power for target BER and data rate constraints is introduced in later chapters of the thesis. Results indicate that the algorithm achieves performance gains of more than 4 dB SNR over conventional OFDM systems. Furthermore, a novel minimum-complexity bit-loading algorithm that maximizes the data rate given BER and power level constraints is proposed in chapter 6. Results show that this bit-loading algorithm achieves almost identical performance as the incremental algorithm but with much lower complexity

Cross-layer energy efficiency of plc systems for smart grid applications

Though opinions are still divided over the specific choices of technology for smart grid, there is a consensus that heterogeneous communications network is most appropriate. Power line communication (PLC) is promising because it is readily available and it aligns with the natural topology of power distribution network. One of the emerging realities is that the communication system enabling smart grid must be energy-efficient. This thesis employs a cross-layer approach to address energy efficiency of PLC networks in different smart grid scenarios. At network layer, this work exploits the topology of a PLC-enabled advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) to improve the probability of successful packet delivery across the network. The technique, termed AMI clustering, leverages the traditional structure of the low voltage (LV) network by organising the smart meters into clusters and locally aggregating their readings. Improvement in packet delivery inherently reduces energy wastage. Next, the adaptation layer exploits the low data rate transmission techniques to reduce the energy requirements of PLC nodes. To achieve that, this work developed a network model in NS-3 (an open-source network simulator) that considers PLC transceivers as resource-constrained devices and interconnects them to emulate home energy management system (HEMS). The model was validated with experimental results which showed that in the home area network (HAN), low-rate applications such as energy management can be supported over low-power PLC networks. Furthermore, at physical layer, this thesis proposes a more energy-efficient multi-carrier modulation scheme than the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) used in most of the current PLC systems. OFDM is widely known for its high peak-to-average-power ratio (PAPR) which degrades energy efficiency of the systems. This thesis found that by employing vector- OFDM (V-OFDM), power requirements of PLC transmitter can be reduced. The results also showed the energy efficiency can be further improved by using a dynamic noise cancellation technique such as dynamic peak-based threshold estimation (DPTE) at the receiver. By applying the proposed methods, packet delivery can be improved by 3% at network layer (which conserves energy) and reduced data rate can save about 2.6014 dB in transmit power. Finally, at physical layer, V-OFDM and DPTE can respectively provide 5.8 dB and 2.1 dB reduction in power requirements of the PLC transceivers. These signify that if V-OFDM is combined with DPTE, future PLC modems could benefit from energy-efficient power amplifiers at reduced cost