Standardization issues of Digital Power Line Communication over high voltage lines

Abstract

Due to the present lack of a product standard for Digital PLC terminals communicating over high voltage power lines, the question arises how the existing standard IEC60495 "Single sideband power line carrier terminals" should be interpreted suitably for digital and mixed analog/digital PLC terminals such that coexistence with analog and digital PLC terminals on the same power lines is possible. The question had to be answered for the specification of ABBs new power line terminal ETL600 that can be configured for pure digital, pure analog or mixed analog/digital operation. The presentation shows how this has been done, points out open standardization problems and makes propositions for solving them.