A discrete multitone power line communications system

In-building power lines have been considered as a medium for high speed data transmission for applications like home networking and Internet access. Frequency selectivity and time variation of this medium in addition to the high level of narrow-band and impulsive interference makes multi-carrier modulation, and especially its popular variant discrete multitone (DMT), an attractive modulation candidate for this application. This paper presents the results of our measurements of the high frequency characteristics of ordinary in-building power lines, as well as simulation results of a DMT transceiver system in an in-building power line environment.