Chapter 16 – Power line communications

In this chapter, we have attempted to provide a readable and concise overview of technical and regulatory aspects of power line communication (PLC) systems, intended especially for the reader who is not yet familiar with PLC. As we outlined in the Introduction section, PLC has a long history as a means to support the operation of the electric power grid. With the advent of sophisticated digital communication methods for wireline and wireless communication, PLC technology has also advanced significantly, and today, it applies the latest communication techniques including multiple-input, multiple-output, and cognitive radio transmission. From a communications engineering perspective, the PLC channel shares several similarities with a wireless communication channel, such as the broadcasting nature and frequency selectivity for broadband signals. On the other hand, the determinism of the channel giving rise to physical models is what PLC has in common with other wireline media. A distinct feature of PLC is that it reuses the electric power grid. This means that high voltages and currents need to be dealt with when deploying PLC equipment. On the other hand, this also opens the door for grid diagnostics, optimization, and inference which are interesting directions for future research.