An analysis of broadband capacities with impulse noise over residential power lines

Transmission of broadband over power lines has received considerable attention recently to cater to broadband distribution within the premises of a home or m the local area served by a substation. The power line has a very different gauge and topology compared to traditional twisted pair copper that today has evolved substantially to support broadband over DSL. The power line has a thicker gauge and shorter straight lengths, but a large number of bridge taps with inductive load terminations. This paper addresses the dual issues of modelling typical power line channels and analyzes the resultant channel for Multicarrier Transmission The basic approach to analyze the power line channel employs ABCD parameters of the individual sections. The effect of up to 10 bridge taps over a 600 meter length is studied. Signal to noise ratio profiles have been obtained using Discrete Multitone Transmission as in ADSL2 and VDSL2 over a bandwidth of 30 MHz. The noise profiles considered include impulse noise which is predominant over power line sections, apart from AWGN. A tone loading analysis for various types of power line channels have been presented assuming the Transmit power spectral densities (PSDs) for ADSL2 and VDSL2. This analysis points to the fact that lower Transmit PSDs would suffice to match the rates achievable by xDSL over traditional twisted pan copper, and this can be distinct advantage considering the need to distribute broadband within residential premises.