Feedback control scheme with prediction for power line communication channels

Abstract

This paper presents a simple scheme to improve the performance of a system involving a power line to transfer signals to control the motion of a single machine. The feedback loop consists of a power line with its characteristic cyclostationary noise which allows for predictable and virtually error free transmission instants as well as predictable instants of high probability of error. We evaluate the effectiveness of a predictive control scheme adapted to the cyclostationary noise in the power line environment. In other words, we explore the cooperation between the system's physical and application layers to achieve an overall optimization. To rate the performance of our system we evaluate and compare the stability and accuracy of the control in the systems with and without the scheme. As a result, it is confirmed that with the predictive control scheme added to the channel prediction scheme, the periodic instants of low noise can be successfully exploited to send additional data to be used when there is high noise, and therefore optimize the system's performance.