On Improving Communication Robustness in PLC Systems for More Reliable Smart Grid Applications

Power-line communication (PLC) has been the main enabler for modernizing the aging electrical power grid. As such, PLC systems have been the subject of intensive research in the community. One of the major aspects of PLC is the link interface, for which orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) has been widely adopted. In this paper, we propose the application of orthogonal poly-phase-based multicarrier code division multiple access (OPP-MC-CDMA) due to its inherent better flexibility and signal-envelope properties which can be utilized to further enhance the reliability of PLC signals. The proposed OPP-MC-CDMA system is implemented with a minimum mean square error equalizer and nonlinear preprocessing to overcome the effects of bursty noise and multipath frequency-selective fading commonly experienced in PLC channels. We study the performance of this system in terms of the output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and symbol error rate with various constellation sizes of OPP codes under different noise scenarios and nonlinear processor's thresholds. For comparison-sake, the performance of the OFDM scheme is included. The results reveal that the proposed approach always provides superior performance over the OFDM one with a maximum output SNR gain of up to 5.25 dB. It is also shown that the performance of the OPP-MC-CDMA technique improves when increasing the constellation size of the OPP codes, which consequently enhances the reliability of PLC

Robust wireless sensor network for smart grid communication : modeling and performance evaluation

Our planet is gradually heading towards an energy famine due to growing population and industrialization. Hence, increasing electricity consumption and prices, diminishing fossil fuels and lack significantly in environment-friendliness due to their emission of greenhouse gasses, and inefficient usage of existing energy supplies have caused serious network congestion problems in many countries in recent years. In addition to this overstressed situation, nowadays, the electric power system is facing many challenges, such as high maintenance cost, aging equipment, lack of effective fault diagnostics, power supply reliability, etc., which further increase the possibility of system breakdown. Furthermore, the adaptation of the new renewable energy sources with the existing power plants to provide an alternative way for electricity production transformed it in a very large and complex scale, which increases new issues. To address these challenges, a new concept of next generation electric power system, called the "smart grid", has emerged in which Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are playing the key role. For a reliable smart grid, monitoring and control of power system parameters in the transmission and distribution segments are crucial. This necessitates the deployment of a robust communication network within the power grid. Traditionally, power grid communications are realized through wired communications, including power line communication (PLC). However, the cost of its installation might be expensive especially for remote control and monitoring applications. More recently, plenty of research interests have been drawn to the wireless communications for smart grid applications. In this regard, the most promising methods of smart grid monitoring explored in the literature is based on wireless sensor network (WSN). Indeed, the collaborative nature of WSN brings significant advantages over the traditional wireless networks, including low-cost, wider coverage, self-organization, and rapid deployment. Unfortunately, harsh and hostile electric power system environments pose great challenges in the reliability of sensor node communications because of strong RF interference and noise called impulsive noise. On account of the fundamental of WSN-based smart grid communications and the possible impacts of impulsive noise on the reliability of sensor node communications, this dissertation is supposed to further fill the lacking of the existing research outcomes. To be specific, the contributions of this dissertation can be summarized as three fold: (i) investigation and performance analysis of impulsive noise mitigation techniques for point-to-point single-carrier communication systems impaired by bursty impulsive noise; (ii) design and performance analysis of collaborative WSN for smart grid communication by considering the RF noise model in the designing process, a particular intension is given to how the time-correlation among the noise samples can be taken into account; (iii) optimal minimum mean square error (MMSE)estimation of physical phenomenon like temperature, current, voltage, etc., typically modeled by a Gaussian source in the presence of impulsive noise. In the first part, we compare and analyze the widely used non-linear methods such as clipping, blanking, and combined clipping-blanking to mitigate the noxious effects of bursty impulsive noise for point-to-point communication systems with low-density parity-check (LDPC) coded single-carrier transmission. While, the performance of these mitigation techniques are widely investigated for multi-carrier communication systems using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission under the effect of memoryless impulsive noise, we note that OFDM is outperformed by its single-carrier counterpart when the impulses are very strong and/or they occur frequently, which likely exists in contemporary communication systems including smart grid communications. Likewise, the assumption of memoryless noise model is not valid for many communication scenarios. Moreover, we propose log-likelihood ratio (LLR)-based impulsive noise mitigation for the considered scenario. We show that the memory property of the noise can be exploited in the LLR calculation through maximum a posteriori (MAP) detection. In this context, provided simulation results highlight the superiority of the LLR-based mitigation scheme over the simple clipping/blanking schemes. The second contribution can be divided into two aspects: (i) we consider the performance analysis of a single-relay decode-and-forward (DF) cooperative relaying scheme over channels impaired by bursty impulsive noise. For this channel, the bit error rate (BER) performances of direct transmission and a DF relaying scheme using M-PSK modulation in the presence of Rayleigh fading with a MAP receiver are derived; (ii) as a continuation of single-relay collaborative WSN scheme, we propose a novel relay selection protocol for a multi-relay DF collaborative WSN taking into account the bursty impulsive noise. The proposed protocol chooses the N’th best relay considering both the channel gains and the states of the impulsive noise of the source-relay and relay-destination links. To analyze the performance of the proposed protocol, we first derive closed-form expressions for the probability density function (PDF) of the received SNR. Then, these PDFs are used to derive closed-form expressions for the BER and the outage probability. Finally, we also derive the asymptotic BER and outage expressions to quantify the diversity benefits. From the obtained results, it is seen that the proposed receivers based on the MAP detection criterion is the most suitable one for bursty impulsive noise environments as it has been designed according to the statistical behavior of the noise. Different from the aforementioned contributions, talked about the reliable detection of finite alphabets in the presence of bursty impulsive noise, in the thrid part, we investigate the optimal MMSE estimation for a scalar Gaussian source impaired by impulsive noise. In Chapter 5, the MMSE optimal Bayesian estimation for a scalar Gaussian source, in the presence of bursty impulsive noise is considered. On the other hand, in Chapter 6, we investigate the distributed estimation of a scalar Gaussian source in WSNs in the presence of Middleton class-A noise. From the obtained results we conclude that the proposed optimal MMSE estimator outperforms the linear MMSE estimator developed for Gaussian channel

Contributions à l'étude des communications numériques sur le réseau électrique à l'intérieur des bâtiments : modélisation du canal et optimisation du débit

In recent years, the electrical network has become an essential candidate for high-speed data transmission inside buildings. Many solutions are currently underway in order to optimize these technologies known under the name of in-home Power-Line Communications (PLC). Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) technique has recently been transposed into power-line networks for which different signal feeding possibilities can be considered between phase, neutral and earth wires. In this thesis, we propose two original contributions to indoor broadband PLC. The first contribution concerns the MIMO-PLC channel modeling. Based on a Single-Input Single-Output (SISO) parametric channel model presented in the literature, we propose a MIMO one by considering a new parameter which characterizes the spatial correlation. The proposed model enables an accurate description of the spatial correlation of European MIMO PLC field measurements. The second contribution is related to the impulsive noise present in power-line networks which constitutes a major problem in communications systems. We propose an outage capacity approach in order to optimize the average data rate in Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems affected by impulsive noise. First, we study the channel capacity as a function of a noise margin provided to the transmitted symbols. Then we determine the analytical expression of the outage probability of an OFDM symbol in terms of the noise margin, by studying in detail the interaction between the noise impulse and the symbol. Based on the two aforementioned relations, we deduce the outage capacity. Then we propose an approach that enables to maximize the average system data rate. Finally, we present the results in the particular case of indoor broadband PLC in the presence of impulsive noise.Au cours de ces dernières années, le réseau électrique est devenu un candidat incontournable pour la transmission de données à haut débit à l’intérieur des bâtiments. De nombreuses solutions sont actuellement à l’étude afin d’optimiser ces technologies connues sous le nom Courants Porteurs en Ligne (CPL) ou PLC (Power-Line Communications). La technique MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) a été tout récemment transposée au réseau filaire électrique pour lequel différents modes d’alimentation peuvent être envisagés entre la phase, le neutre et la terre. Dans le cadre de cette thèse, nous proposons deux contributions originales à l’étude des communications numériques sur le réseau électrique à l’intérieur des bâtiments. La première contribution concerne la modélisation du canal MIMO-PLC. En repartant d’un modèle du canal paramétrique SISO (Single-Input Single-Output) connu dans la littérature, nous proposons un modèle du canal MIMO en considérant un nouveau paramètre caractérisant la corrélation spatiale. Le modèle proposé permet de représenter fidèlement la corrélation spatiale des mesures effectuées à l’échelle européenne. La deuxième contribution concerne le bruit impulsif présent sur le réseau électrique domestique qui constitue un problème majeur dans les systèmes de communications. Nous proposons une méthode basée sur la notion de capacité de coupure afin d’optimiser le débit moyen dans les systèmes OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) soumis aux bruits impulsifs. D’abord, nous étudions la capacité du système en fonction d’une marge de bruit fournie aux symboles transmis. Ensuite, nous déterminons l’expression analytique de la probabilité de coupure (outage) d’un symbole OFDM en fonction de cette marge, en étudiant de manière détaillée l’interaction entre l’impulsion de bruit et le symbole. A partir de ces deux calculs, nous déduisons la capacité de coupure. Puis, nous proposons une approche qui maximise l’espérance mathématique du débit reçu. Finalement, nous présentons les résultats obtenus dans le cas particulier d’une transmission à haut débit sur PLC en présence de bruits impulsifs

Abstracts on Radio Direction Finding (1899 - 1995)

The files on this record represent the various databases that originally composed the CD-ROM issue of "Abstracts on Radio Direction Finding" database, which is now part of the Dudley Knox Library's Abstracts and Selected Full Text Documents on Radio Direction Finding (1899 - 1995) Collection. (See Calhoun record https://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10945/57364 for further information on this collection and the bibliography). Due to issues of technological obsolescence preventing current and future audiences from accessing the bibliography, DKL exported and converted into the three files on this record the various databases contained in the CD-ROM. The contents of these files are: 1) RDFA_CompleteBibliography_xls.zip [RDFA_CompleteBibliography.xls: Metadata for the complete bibliography, in Excel 97-2003 Workbook format; RDFA_Glossary.xls: Glossary of terms, in Excel 97-2003 Workbookformat; RDFA_Biographies.xls: Biographies of leading figures, in Excel 97-2003 Workbook format]; 2) RDFA_CompleteBibliography_csv.zip [RDFA_CompleteBibliography.TXT: Metadata for the complete bibliography, in CSV format; RDFA_Glossary.TXT: Glossary of terms, in CSV format; RDFA_Biographies.TXT: Biographies of leading figures, in CSV format]; 3) RDFA_CompleteBibliography.pdf: A human readable display of the bibliographic data, as a means of double-checking any possible deviations due to conversion

Satellite fixed communications service: A forecast of potential domestic demand through the year 2000. Volume 3: Appendices

Voice applications, data applications, video applications, impacted baseline forecasts, market distribution model, net long haul forecasts, trunking earth station definition and costs, trunking space segment cost, trunking entrance/exit links, trunking network costs and crossover distances with terrestrial tariffs, net addressable forecasts, capacity requirements, improving spectrum utilization, satellite system market development, and the 30/20 net accessible market are considered

Proceedings of the Fourth Precise Time and Time Interval Planning Meeting

The proceedings of a conference on Precise Time and Time Interval Planning are presented. The subjects discussed include the following: (1) satellite timing techniques, precision frequency sources, and very long baseline interferometry, (2) frequency stabilities and communications, and (3) very low frequency and ultrahigh frequency propagation and use. Emphasis is placed on the accuracy of time discrimination obtained with time measuring equipment and specific applications of time measurement to military operations and civilian research projects

Advances in Computer Recognition, Image Processing and Communications, Selected Papers from CORES 2021 and IP&C 2021

As almost all human activities have been moved online due to the pandemic, novel robust and efficient approaches and further research have been in higher demand in the field of computer science and telecommunication. Therefore, this (reprint) book contains 13 high-quality papers presenting advancements in theoretical and practical aspects of computer recognition, pattern recognition, image processing and machine learning (shallow and deep), including, in particular, novel implementations of these techniques in the areas of modern telecommunications and cybersecurity