Impact of Channel Disturbances on Current Narrowband Power Line Communications and Lessons to Be Learnt for the Future Technologies

Llano, Asier; Vega, David; Angulo, Itziar; Marron, Laura

doi:10.1109/access.2019.2924806

Cited by 19 publications

(44 citation statements)

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“…Focused on the improvement lines identified in [10], this research work covers two main objectives. Firstly, the aim is to define improvement proposals for the physical layers of PRIME 1.3.6 [11], PRIME 1.4 [12], and G3-PLC [13,14] technologies, trying to improve their response against disturbances present in the LV grid.…”

Section: Objectives and Scopementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The work will be organized as follows: Based on the PLC performance results obtained in [10], several physical layer improvement proposals for PRIME and G3-PLC are identified in Section 3. For each physical layer parameter under test, their original status, their room for improvement and the improvement proposal will be described.…”

Section: Objectives and Scopementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on the future evolutions concluded in [10], three improvement proposals are selected for the physical layer of PRIME 1.3.6 [11], PRIME 1.4 [12], and G3-PLC [13,14] technologies, trying to improve their response against the disturbances present in LV grids. Two types of improvement are studied: implementation changes within the scope of the standard, and proposals for the modification of PLC specifications.…”

Section: Physical Layer Improvement Proposals For Prime and G3-plcmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, when disturbances are evaluated, no standard and controlled noise patterns are referenced [8]; moreover, the laboratory setups used in these studies are not reproducible, as no standard environments are utilized to determine PLC performance [9]. All these partial analyses demonstrate the need of developing simulation-based test benches for the design and validation of both the effects of channel disturbances and the performance of new techniques to improve the data transmission under these harsh conditions.In view of the limitations of the available studies, the authors of the present contribution carried out a complete physical layer performance evaluation of the influence of real-world disturbances over PLC technologies within European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) A band (9-95 kHz) [10]. The work analyzed the impact of standard and controlled noise patterns over PRIME 1.3.6 [11], PRIME 1.4 [12], and G3-PLC [13,14] technologies under a reproducible and standard environment [15].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In view of the limitations of the available studies, the authors of the present contribution carried out a complete physical layer performance evaluation of the influence of real-world disturbances over PLC technologies within European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) A band (9-95 kHz) [10]. The work analyzed the impact of standard and controlled noise patterns over PRIME 1.3.6 [11], PRIME 1.4 [12], and G3-PLC [13,14] technologies under a reproducible and standard environment [15].…”

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confidence: 99%

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Virtual PLC Lab Enabled Physical Layer Improvement Proposals for PRIME and G3-PLC Standards

Llano¹,

Angulo

Vega

et al. 2020

Applied Sciences

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Narrowband (NB) powerline communication (PLC) is extensively adopted by utilities for the communication in advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) systems. PLC technology needs to overcome channel disturbances present in certain grid segments. This study analyzes improvement proposals of the physical layer of the main narrowband PLC technologies approved by international communication organizations that are currently deployed in Europe: Powerline Intelligent Metering Evolution (PRIME) 1.3.6, PRIME 1.4, and G3-PLC, in order to improve PLC performance under channel disturbances. This thorough study is based on simulations carried out by an innovative ad hoc Virtual PLC Lab, developed by the authors, applied in replicable, fully-automated, and cost reduced test scenarios. The analysis is performed by applying standardized test methods and metrics, and by evaluating the influence of a set of representative channel disturbances defined by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and selected noises generated by distributed energy resources (DER) in normal operation. PLC performance improvements in terms of equalizer curve fitting, error correction codes, and noisy subcarrier suppression mechanisms are presented. The performance gain due to each physical improvement proposal is accurately measured and compared under the same conditions in a replicable and automated test environment in order to evaluate the use of the proposals in the evolution of future PLC technologies.As a result, sophisticated test methods are needed to evaluate, first, the effects of each type of disturbance on the different configurations of the communications technologies and, second, the efficiency of the strategies designed to overcome such disturbances. This paper proposes the use of a Virtual PLC Lab to evaluate the performance of several improvement proposals for several PLC technologies. The Virtual PLC Lab includes the whole communication system, composed not only of transmission and reception devices, but also on the characterization of the different effects of the propagation channel. As a result, it enables an efficient analysis of new coding or equalizing techniques that would require long and complex validation procedures, without the need of physically implementing these techniques in the hardware devices, reducing the time and the cost of these developments.Several articles study the NB PLC performance from 3 to 500 kHz in the presence of noise and harsh situations. This performance has been studied from multiple approaches. There are analytical studies based on generic PLC technologies [2]. Several studies are oriented to PRIME statistical performance in field setups [3,4]. Some specific studies focus on upper layer performance instead of being physical layer-oriented [5]. There are some comparisons of the performance of PLC technologies and physical layers, although these are not exactly under the same conditions [6]. Moreover, there is a lack of studies covering the PRIME standard in its recent 1.4 version and G3...

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Section: Objectives and Scopementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Objectives and Scopementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Physical Layer Improvement Proposals For Prime and G3-plcmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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