PLC link control based on minimal total distance and LDPC codes

Abstract

Multimedia applications like high definition digital television push the manufacturers to increase available bandwidth mainly in Powerline Communication (PLC) links. Because of this needs in this work a PLC link control is developed to maximize the information rate meanwhile the bit error rate (BER) is maintained under a desired reference limit. The developed control system has a unique variable called minimal total distance and the feedback loop signal is estimated from the low-density parity check (LDPC) decoder iterations. These mentioned characteristics enable a fast and simple control scheme. In order to evaluate the control system behavior a complete Powerline (PL) link was modeled in a matrix form and simulated with a measured PL channel model and with an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. The implemented PL link reaches 570Mbps in AWGN. Finally the BER control shows a good response under a severe random walk SNR channel variation.