On the suitability of the Middleton class A noise model for narrowband PLC

This paper analyzes the suitability of the Middleton canonical class A distribution to model the noise amplitude in narrowband power line communications (NB-PLC). The study has been accomplished using 311 noise registers measured in the CENELEC-A band. Obtained results indicate that this model has a quite limited capability to represent the measured noise, since only 14.47% of the registers have amplitudes drawn from this distribution. Nevertheless, the analysis of these successful cases provides practical information for the utilization of the model. Hence, 56% of these cases can be adequately modeled by truncating the infinite sum in the class A probability density function (PDF) to two terms, which makes it equivalent to the Bernoulli-Gaussian model. It is also shown that the values of the impulsive index and the Gaussian to impulsive power noise ratio are inversely related.