Feasibility study on detecting short wave radio stations on the powerlines for dynamic PSD reduction as method for cognitive PLC

This paper compares different detection methods of radio broadcast frequencies to reduce dynamic PSD. It starts with spectrum analyzer-based measurements on the power lines to get experience with the ingress caused by the radio stations. Then a short wave radio detector algorithm is presented. Detailed analyses are made using this detector in conjunction with hundred thousands of PLC channels of devolos channel database. Further detection methods using PLC devices are researched as well. The first method bases on analyzing the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the PLC modem. This is a similar approach to using the detector algorithm. The second method uses the noise floor measured by the PLC modem to detect the radio stations. The paper ends with an analysis of the performance impact of adding the dynamic notching functionality.