Coherence time and sparsity of Brazilian outdoor PLC channels: A preliminary analysis

This work aims at offering an initial analysis of coherence time and sparsity of power line communication (PLC) channels, which were measured in the outdoor and low-voltage electric distribution networks in Brazil. In this regard, a procedure for estimating coherence time and sparsity of PLC channels is described. In the sequel, estimates of coherence time and sparsity of several measures of Brazilian PLC channels are reported. The attained results confirm that only the coefficients of channel impulse responses with the largest amplitudes are relevant to estimate the coherence time. Moreover, they also indicate that the sparsity of PLC channel is a random variable that deserves more investigation and analysis.