Using the Wireless and PLC Channels for Diversity

Author

Lai, Stephen W. ; Messier, Geoffrey G.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Univ. of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

Volume

60

Issue

12

fYear

2012

fDate

12/1/2012 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

3865

Lastpage

3875

Abstract

Performance of indoor home networks can be improved by simultaneous use of wireless and powerline communication (PLC) channels. A narrowband model representing an OFDM subcarrier is used to analyze the performance of several diversity combining schemes including optimum combining (OC), saturated metric combining (SMC) and maximal ratio combining (MRC). Results from BER analysis show that SMC achieves good performance in highly impulsive noise and is relatively insensitive to error in noise parameter estimates. Indoor measurements from 3 detached homes show that parallel wireless and PLC channels have a wide, but similar, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) range. Measurement data is used with link throughput analysis to show that wireless/PLC diversity can be used to minimize the likelihood of low throughput links.

Keywords

carrier transmission on power lines; diversity reception; indoor radio; wireless channels; BER analysis; OFDM subcarrier; PLC channels; diversity combining schemes; impulsive noise; indoor home networks; indoor measurements; link throughput analysis; maximal ratio combining; narrowband model; noise parameter estimates; optimum combining; parallel wireless channels; powerline communication channels; saturated metric combining; signal-to-noise ratio; AWGN; Bit error rate; Diversity reception; Measurement; Signal to noise ratio; Wireless communication; Diversity methods; electromagnetic interference; fading channels; indoor radio communication; parameter estimation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Communications, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0090-6778

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TCOMM.2012.081512.110408

Filename

6279521