Pilot based channel estimation and transform domain analysis in broadband PLC for Smart Grid

In this work, we investigate pilot based channel estimation for broadband (BB) power line communications (PLC). First, we explore incline-type pilot arrangement compared to block-type and comb-type arrangements to reduce interpolation error. We utilize least squares (LS) and linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE) estimators with linear or cubic interpolation to evaluate the performance of different pilot arrangements. Next, we propose a transform domain (TD) approach to cope with the changes in the channel estimates in the presence of power line impulsive noise. We demonstrate that the effect of a change in the channel response and impulsive noise are different in the TD. Our results indicate that incline-type pilot arrangement can be useful to reduce interpolation error for BB PLC channels, and the TD approach can help clearly identify the changes in the channel estimates due to changes in the channel response or the power line impulsive noise.