Transmitter front-end for impulsive broad band power line communications

Power Line Communication (PLC) systems have attracted considerable attention since they enable the delivery of services in several domains without requiring new wires. Smart homes and smart grids are good candidates for the application of PLC. In the context of smart homes, both high speed and low speed PLC networks, namely broad band PLC (BB-PLC) and narrow band PLC (NB-PLC), can find application for home networking, for multimedia/entertainment services, for home automation and energy management. Currently, both BB-PLC and NB-PLC use multicarrier modulation. It is relevant to conceive alternative modulation techniques that can provide higher date rates without, possibly, increasing complexity. Impulsive ultra wide band modulation can offer such benefits especially if simple implementations are developed. In this paper, we focus on the hardware design of the front-end stage of an impulsive based PLC system. The front-end comprises a novel pulse generator, a pulse shaper and a coupler to inject the signal into the mains voltage network. We study the physical constraints to generate pulses at a certain rate, with a certain bandwidth and with a certain power. In particular, in impulsive modulation, while the average power spectral density is small, the peak power is a severe requirement for conventional amplifiers.