BER Performance Degradation of a Powerline Communication System due to Power Transformer and Performance Improvement by Diversity Reception Technique

Author(s)

Abstract
In powerline communication, both the RF data and low frequency electric power flow through the same line. Where the power-line is actually designed for the transmission and distribution of electrical power. Therefore, the cables/wires are so chosen as suitable for the use of high voltages at low frequencies. But RF transmission requirement is low voltages at higher frequencies. So, the transmission channel for RF signal finds some unfavourable factors in the channel such as, high attenuation, isolation of transformer, varying impedance, noise, etc. These factors lead to low data rates, which tend to limit its performance for applications like home automation or monitoring. A power transformer used in a PLC line intended to handle the power transformation of the power line of very low frequency. But when a RF PLC signal is applied to the line its behavior and response to RF frequencies will be different from its response to power frequencies. At the power frequency, all power lines are electrically short in terms of wavelength. At RF carrier frequencies, however, most lines are many wavelengths long because of the much shorter wavelength. In this paper, an analytical approach made to investigate the behavior of a power transformer used in a PLC system and find out the losses of RF signal due to the presence of a transformer, and mitigate the same using diversity reception.

Keywords
OFDM, Diversity reception, Transfer function

Cite this paper
M Mahbubur Rahman, S P Majumder, BER Performance Degradation of a Powerline Communication System due to Power Transformer and Performance Improvement by Diversity Reception Technique , SCIREA Journal of Electrical Engineering. Volume 4, Issue 1, February 2019 | PP. 10-24.

References