A Case Study on Multi-Softcore Aided Hardware Architectures for Powerline MAC-Layer

Powerline communication is a promising technology for connecting Internet of Things (IoT) applications, where devices have strict limitations regarding available installation space and power dissipation. Especially the wiring of these devices benefits from not having additional cables for network connection. Thus, saving costs and additional installation effort. In this paper a very resource-efficient implementation of a HomePlug 1.0.1 [5] compatible powerline MAC layer, which is used to control the data flow and link status of a powerline connection, is presented. The MAC layer is implemented in two variants, using state machines and softcore processors. A comparison of the two approaches shows that the softcore design used up to 78 % less FPGA ressources and is superior in terms of flexibility and maintainability