Study of (500 k~10 M) Hz noise in the low voltage networks and estimate of channel capacity

There is continued and growing interest in using low voltage power networks to realize "the last mile". It is necessary and important for any communication system to study the noise characteristics of the communication channel. This paper presents noise measurements on three typical low voltage networks in the frequency range of (500 k~10 M) Hz. The noise measurements include: power-line background noise, appliance noise and noise sampled over a 24-hour period The conclusion that has been reached is that the noise level in the (500 k~10 M) Hz is much lower than that in the (10 k-450 k) Hz ranges. Finally the paper gives a rough estimate of the channel capacity.