Modelling and Characterization of Power Line Communication Channel

Abstract

Massive advances in the ?eld of renewable energy sources have created a need for an infrastructure incorporating both renewable and non-renewable energy resources. Also the pressing need of increasing power demand seeks an infrastructure which can ful?ll the growing demands. Smart grid technology is emerging out to resolve such issues. Smart grid communicates with its entities to provide intelligence to the whole electricity delivery system. Thus the communication infrastructure is an essential part of such an emerging technology. Creation of an intelligent system for smart grid requires a reliable communication system. Power line communication is a communication backbone of smart grid system. It is viewed as an alternative for local area network and wireless communication at home premises. It enables communication between various domains of smart grid infrastructure. It serves as a communication media at customer premises and as a last mile communication. Recent advances in power line communication technology has created a large demand for access to network services inside premises. Power line communication has emerged as a strong candidate under such circumstances. Quality of service in power line communication relies heavily on characterization of the medium. This paper analyses the channel characteristics of power line. A transmission line model for high-frequency Power line channel is used to study the transfer characteristics of multibranch power line. In the present thesis, power line communication channel modelling is mainly focused. The channel modelling being essential part of any communication system is analysed thoroughly and observations are drawn from the simulation results obtained. All the simulations are performed in MATLAB simulation environment.