SUMMARYProducts implementing the HomePlug 1.0 standard allowing high-speed communication on low-voltage powerlines have recently started arriving on the U.S. market for home and office networking without the requirement for installing new wires. Effective use of the powerline bandwidth requires robust physical (PHY) and medium access control (MAC) protocols to mitigate the harsh conditions of the powerline channel as well as the capability to support prioritized multimedia traffic. This paper describes powerline communications and the HomePlug 1.0 protocol, based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA), along with its changes to allow prioritized channel access. It then presents performance results for the HomePlug 1.0 protocol using a simulation model, ideal laboratory measurements with actual HomePlug 1.0 devices and field tests in a residential building. Simulation and laboratory data rates were around 6 Mbps; and field tests gave rates from 1.6 to 5:3 Mbps at the application level.

HomePlug AV2 is the solution identified by the HomePlug Alliance to achieve the improved data rate performance required by the new generation of multimedia applications without the need to install extra wires. Developed by industry-leading participants in the HomePlug AV Technical Working Group, the HomePlug AV2 technology provides Gigabit-class connection speeds over the existing AC wires within home. It is designed to meet the market demands for the full set of future in-home networking connectivity. Moreover, HomePlug AV2 guarantees backward interoperability with other HomePlug systems. In this paper, the HomePlug AV2 system architecture is introduced and the technical details of the key features at both the PHY and MAC layers are described. The HomePlug AV2 performance is assessed, through simulations reproducing real home scenarios.

-In 2000, the HomePlug organization has developed the HomePlug 1.0 standard which became the basis for the world's most widely deployed power line communication system. Now the organization is undertaking the task of developing the specifications for a second generation technology, HomePlug AV, which will be geared towards the distribution of voice, video, and data throughout the home, once again over the power line medium. This specification is targeted for release in the second quarter of 2005.In this paper, we give an introduction to some of the basic elements of the MAC and PHY layer of the HomePlug AV specification. We describe how some of the system level choices are influenced by either the characteristics of the power line channel, by the regulatory environment, by application requirements, or by implementation constraints. Finally, we discuss the performance of the proposed system measured with prototypes of the proposed system in typical North American homes.

In this paper a statistical description of in-home MIMO power line channels is derived, based on channel measurements in the 0 to 100 MHz range. In particular, it is shown that the power delay profile has a statistical distribution that could be well described by Weibull and Gaussian distributions. It is also confirmed that the channel attenuation has a linear behavior as a function of the frequency and that the average channel attenuation and the root mean square of the delay spread are inversely correlated. Furthermore, a statistical description of the MIMO power line channel coefficients is provided by using a suitable definition of the correlation among the channel coefficients. Based on the extracted statistical descriptions a new model for MIMO power line channels is proposed. Finally, the consistency between the measured and the generated power line channels is shown.

In this paper we study the characteristics of in-home multi-input multi-output (MIMO) power line channels in the 0 -100 MHz frequency band. Channel measurements are obtained in several US homes by transmitting two independent signals over two wire pairs (line-neutral and line-protective earth) and receiving on all three wire pairs (line-neutral, line-protective earth and neutral-protective earth). Noise measurements on all three wire pairs are also performed and spectral properties of noise in MIMO power line channels are presented. In particular, noise is characterized in terms of correlation among the receive ports. We analyze the effect of noise correlation on the eigenspread of the channel matrix, and also its effect on MIMO channel capacity. It is shown that while noise correlation contributes to an increase in the eigen-spread and therefore correlation of a composite channel, it ultimately improves channel capacity. The capacity of MIMO power line channels is compared for 2x2 and 2x3 MIMO configurations, showing the gain of a third receive port. Finally, capacity gains of various MIMO configurations over the single-input single-output (SISO) power line systems are provided. Keywords-MIMO, power line communication, in-home MIMO power line channels, noise correlationI.