In this paper, we study a dual-hop mixed power line communication and radio-frequency communication (PLC/RF) system, where the connection between the PLC link and the RF link is made by a decode-and-forward (DF) or amplify-andforward (AF) relay. Assume that the PLC channel is affected by both additive background noise and impulsive noise suffers from Log-normal fading, while the RF link undergoes Rician fading. Based on this model, analytical expressions of the outage probability (OP), average bit error rate (BER), and the average channel capacity (ACC) are derived. Furthermore, an asymptotic analysis for the OP and average BER, as well as an upper bound expression for the ACC are presented. At last, numerical results are developed to validate our analytical results, and in-depth discussions are conducted.Index Terms-Average bit error rate (BER), outage probability (OP), average channel capacity (ACC), power line communication, radio-frequency system.
I. INTRODUCTIONA S a low-cost and energy-saving communication technology, power line communication (PLC) utilizes the existing cables for data transmission [1]- [3]. According to different voltage levels, PLC can communicate through low-voltage cables, medium-voltage cables, and high-voltage cables [4]- [5]. Compared with other methods of communication, PLC has the characteristics of wide coverage, convenient connection, and no need to rewire, which enables it to be used in indoor and outdoor communication. For instance, in [6], the authors put forward a kind of indoor narrow-band PLC network model, and provided the appropriate types of cables and electrical appliances through laboratory experiments and simulation results. Based on the deep integration of PLC and visible light (VLC), a original, practical, and economical indoor broadband broadcasting network was studied in [7]. The authors in [8] investigated the spatial correlation in indoor multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) PLC channels. Additionally, PLC has arisen as one of the main technical methods of two-way communication in smart grid (SG) [9]. It can be connected to all locations of the grid and transmit data on the original infrastructure. In [10], the authors studied the performance of discrete wavelet multitone transceiver for narrow-band PLC in SG.However, compared with general wireless communication systems, the performance of PLC communication systems is highly influenced by frequency selectivity, path loss, and various attenuation and interference. In addition, impedance mismatch and non-Gaussian noise in the PLC channel arise as further issues to be tackled with. Moreover, since PLC was originally used to transmit electric energy (and not for data communication), the transmission power in PLC systems should comply with the regulations of relevant government departments, which leads to the limitation of system capacity and transmission distance [11]. Finally, the affection of background noise (BGN) and impulsive noise (IMN) on system performance should also be jointly considered in PLC systems as...