Design and Implementation of Convergence sub-layer for a Heterogeneous Home Network

In this paper, a heterogeneous home network is designed and implemented using power line communications and IEEE 802.15.4. This paper presents the need of the heterogeneous home network in which IEEE 802.15.4 compensates for limitations of PLC based home networks. The convergence sub-layer (Cs-layer) is designed and implemented to enable a heterogeneous home network on the power line communication modem with IEEE 802.15.4 communication module. The main functions of Cs-layer are medium information management and medium selection. We built a test-bed and conducted experiments. Implementation and experimental results validate the feasibility of the Cs-layer to extend the PLC based home network to the heterogeneous home network.