Narrowband Power Line Communications: Channel characteristics and modulation

Narrowband Power Line Communication may be an economic way to establish a communication link between a central point and remote nodes on an electricity network. In this paper, the channel characteristics of a typical rural overhead line distribution network are determined through simulation. The study is extended to include a simulation of OFDM modulation and it is demonstrated that the simulation setup can provide an indication as to the performance of different modulation schemes on an arbitrary network. Inductive coupling is also examined, with emphasis on the potential of air gapped nanocrystalline inductive couplers for operation in the narrowband range.