Performance of Underground Cables That Use OFDM Systems for Broadband Power-Line Communications

Power-line networks are proposed for broadband data transmission. The presence of multipaths within the broadband power-line communication (BPLC) system, due to stochastic changes in the network load impedances, branches, etc. pose a real challenge as it affects network performance. This paper attempts to investigate the performance of an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM)-based BPLC system that uses underground cables. It is found that when a branch is added in the link between the sending and receiving end, there is an average of 4-dB power loss. In addition, when the terminal impedances of the branches that are connected to the link between the transmitting and receiving end vary from line characteristic impedance to low-impedance values, the power loss (signal-to-noise ratio) is about 0.35 dB/ Omega. On the contrary, for an increase in the terminal impedances by 100 Omega above line characteristic impedance, the power loss is 0.23 dB//Omega. When the branch terminal impedances are close to short or open circuits, OFDM techniques show degraded performance. This situation is also observed when the number of branches increases. It is shown that to overcome degraded network performance, the concatenated Reed-Solomon codes/interleaved Viterbi methods can be used, which could be used for an efficient design of the BPLC system that uses OFDM techniques.