Analysis and modeling of impact of household loads on Broadband PLC performance

In-home Power Line Communication (PLC) enables new and highly convenient networking functions without any additional cables to mains-powered devices. The development of PLC systems for internet, voice, and data services requires the knowledge of the channel in terms of attenuation, phase and noise. To characterize the channel propagation, channel transfer function can be measured or modelled. In this paper we propose a comparison between measurements and simulation results obtained with a deterministic propagation channel model, simulating in-home power network. The impedance of realistic households loads are also modelled and their impact on the transfer function of PLC channel and the communication capacity is analysed. The coherence bandwidth and the delay spread are calculated from simulation results of the various transfer functions.