Coupling for Power Line Communications: A Survey

Abstract

The advent of power line communication (PLC) for smart grids, vehicular communications, internet of things and data network access has recently gained ample interest in industry and academia. Due to the characteristics of electric power grids and regulatory constraints, the effectiveness of coupling between the power line and PLC transceivers has become a very important issue. Coupling devices used to inject or extract data communication signals into or from power lines are very important components of a PLC system. There is, however, an obvious gap in the literature for a detailed review of existing PLC couplers. In this paper, we present a comprehensive review of couplers, which are required for narrowband and broadband PLC transceivers. Prevailing issues that protract the design of couplers and consequently subtended the inventions of different types of couplers are clearly described. We also provide a useful classification of PLC couplers based on the type of physical couplings, voltage levels, frequency bandwidth, propagation modes and a number of connections. This survey will guide researchers, as well as designers alike, into a quicker resourcing when studying coupling in narrowband and broadband PLC systems.

PLC Systems Under the Presence of a Malicious Wireless Communication Device: Physical Layer Security Analyses

“…From 3 . In addition to that, the scenario having Eve far away from Alice and Bob (i.e., C E = 0) account for a reference to analyze the leakage information from the channel between Alice and Bob to Eve.…”

A Review of Impedance Matching Techniques in Power Line Communications

“…To facilitate the implementation of MV PLC systems, some works have focused on the investigation of channel and noise characteristics, e.g., the noise levels [101], channel capacity [102], characteristic impedance [103], and earth path characterization [104] of MV power distribution grids. The MV PLC couplers require special components that withstand high differential voltages between the phases and ground, which make these devices more expensive and more difficult to implement than LV PLC couplers [3]. Some innovative MV PLC coupling solutions [105,106] have been proposed to replace commercial MV PLC couplers with less-expensive solutions by using a capacitive divider of voltage-detecting systems (VDS), which are usually already installed in the MV switchboards.…”

“…Typically, PLC couplers that work on SISO (Single Input Single Output) mode use the P-N port obtained from P and N wires to transmit and receive signals. Most PLC system studies use SISO mode due to their simplicity and low cost [3]. As disscussed in Sections 3.1-3.7, SISO PLC couplers with impedance matching are designed to achieve impedance matching between PLC modems and power line channels for maximum signal power transfer.…”

“…Due to the harsh channel environment, preliminary research activities on PLC have not attracted researchers. Since the 1990s, with the introduction of broadband PLC and the smart grid concept, PLC technology has moved from a little-known technology from the 1930s to a competitive modern technology [3]. In the past decade, PLC technology has been widely adopted by intelligent detection systems [4], automatic meter reading units [5] and smart home [6] solutions at the heart of the smart grid concept.…”

Characteristic Impedance Analysis of Medium-Voltage Underground Cables with Grounded Shields and Armors for Power Line Communication

“…This method requires impedance matching between the internal impedances of the receivers and the characteristic impedances of the power lines. The purpose of complex conjugate matching is to adapt the internal impedance of the transceivers to the changeable access impedance of the power lines to achieve maximum power transmission [14][15][16]. Additionally, some optimization methods based on access impedance have been proposed to increase the data rate and channel capacity of the PLC systems [17,18].…”