PHY abstraction methodology for the performance evaluation of PLC channels

In this paper we present the abstraction model of physical (PHY) layer of an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)-based powerline communication (PLC) system. This paper describes the PHY abstraction methodology suitable to predict the PHY layer error performance in a realistic powerline channel environment including frequency-selective interference. The approach to predict the PHY layer performance and the process to obtain the detailed parameters of PHY abstraction models are presented. The parameters of developed PHY abstraction models for several modulation and coding schemes used in the OFDM-based PLC PHY layer are presented in this paper. The validation result of the proposed PHY abstraction methodology shows that the developed PHY abstraction model provides a high accuracy of error performance prediction for PLC channel models in the powerline noise environment. Therefore the developed PHY abstraction model can be used for the further system-level simulations or MAC simulations regarding both error performance prediction and for fast link adaptation purposes.