paper 150205023407

Abstract

The recent advancements in digital communication techniques have seen renewed interest in the possible utilization of the traditional power grid for the provision of broadband data and voice services. However, the power line communication (PLC) channel (the power network), presents a very challenging environment for communication purposes. This is due to the fact that severe noise and distortion effects are inherent in the medium. But, if these noise and distortion effects can be effectively analyzed and modeled, then the resulting models can be utilized in the optimal or sub-optimal design of a digital communication system for PLC applications. In this paper, frequency domain noise measurements done in broadband indoor PLC networks are presented. The measurement results obtained are then modeled using the alpha stable distribution, motivated by the flexibility of the distribution as a modeling tool and the fact that the measured noise distribution is heavily tailed and skewed.

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Thomas Joachim Odhiambo Afullo

Innocent E. Davidson

Abraham M. Nyete