Broadband Power Line communication is considered as one of possible communication technologies for the buildings communication infrastructure in the concept of Smart Building. The possible applications where BPL (Broadband over Power Lines) solution can be used for communication in the concept of Smart Building are Power Quality (PQ) measurement, Electric Vehicle or Micro Grids and Distribution Generation (DG). This article should help to determine clear performance possibilities of BPL for an implementation in Smart Building especially due to a large amount of overhead caused by cybersecurity and the protocol overhead. The possibilities of BPL were measured with five different BPL solutions. The results show a sufficient throughput on the application layer for Smart Building application, because, in the literature, various throughput limits are introduced. According to related work, there are missing measurements on the application layer for laboratory conditions as well as compared with real field measurements. In this article, we also exploit our novel idea of a broadband PLC (Power Line Communication) modem integrated into an electrical outlet.

The popularity of the Power Line Communication (PLC) system has decreased due to significant deficiencies in the technology itself, even though new wire installation is not required. In particular, regarding the request for high-speed throughput to fulfill smart-grid requirements, Broadband Power Line (BPLC) can be considered. This paper approaches PLC technology as an object of simulation experimentation in the Broadband Power Line Communication (BPLC) area. Several experimental measurements in a real environment are also given. This paper demonstrates these experimental simulation results as potential mechanisms for creating a complex simulation tool for various PLC technologies focusing on communication with end devices such as sensors and meters. The aim is to demonstrate the potential and limits of BPLC technology for implementation in Smart Grids or Smart Metering applications.

Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) is considered a promising communication technology in the concept of Smart Grids. This paper evaluates networks based on BPL, with a focus on the impact of repeaters in the linear topology of distribution substations. In large-scale Smart Grids network planning, positions of repeaters have to be carefully chosen. This article should help to determine such positions and limitations of BPL linear topology networks. Laboratory and on-field measurements and their results are presented in this article. Results show the impact of repeater’s deployment for different testing methodologies also with regard to other already presented studies. Measured values and the determined impacts of repeaters are later used as input data for simulation of the linear BPL topology in terms of network throughput with multiple streams and bottlenecks. These occur especially on lines shared by multiple communicating nodes. Furthermore, the simulation investigates the balancing time of multiple data streams throughput. The simulation shows that the throughput balancing can occupy a significant time slot, up to tens of seconds before the throughput of different streams balances. Also, the more data is generated, the more time the balancing time takes. Additionally, the throughput drop caused by a repeater is determined into the range of 35–60%. Based on the measurement and simulation results, lessons learned are presented, and possible performance improvements are discussed.

No abstract

No abstract