Network-coding-based distributed relay scheme for PLC networks

Power Line Communication (PLC) is a communication technology that uses the existing distribution power grids for data transmission. Because of the high attenuation in the power line channel, transmission between two distant nodes must be done through relay technology. What's more, since strong noise exists in power grids the packet error rate may be high even when two nodes are close. This paper proposes a distributed relay scheme based on network coding that is designed for this high packet loss environment. Simulation results show that the proposed approach performs better than a fixed-path relay scheme in which only an end-to-end acknowledgement is enabled.