Combating impulsive noise and ISI in power line communication systems

Abstract

Power line communication (PLC) continues to draw increasing interest with a potential for a wide range of appli cations including cost-free last-mile communication solution and smart grid monitoring. However, signals transmitted through the power lines deteriorate badly due to the presence of severe inter symbol interference (lSI) and harsh impulsive noise. This work studies reliable communication over narrow-band power lines by exploiting new ways of turbo equalization that is specifically designed for PLC. By introducing useful precoding to reshape lSI, optimizing maximum a posteriori (MAP) detection to specifically address the random impulsive noise, and performing soft iterative decision refinement, the new equalizer demonstrates a gain significantly better than the existing turbo equalizers.

Smarter concepts for future EMI standards

“…The time-dependent characteristic of the interference explained in the previous section is valuable information to establish a reliable PLT. The conventional way to achieve that EMC goal is by combating the noise using many schemes [7], [9], [10], [11] or by deriving capacity of the PLT channel [12]. The idea on using diversity in time and frequency applied on mains communication system (MCS) is triggered by success story of the similar concept on a naval vessel.…”