Modern power line communication technologies

Abstract

Power line communication (PLC) technologies allow the transmission of data through the electrical cables employed in power transmission, distribution and consumption networks, or in any other electrified environment, taking advantage of these important existing branched and interconnected infrastructures to reduce the time and costs of deploying communication networks. PLCs have been used for a longtime, but only with recent advances in digital communication, signal processing and circuit design techniques have become sufficiently reliable and secure for applications in data networks and smart grids (SGs). PLC technologies have been designed for both narrowband and broadband applications and, as a result, several standards were developed to regulate their use. These standards specify several techniques to overcome the challenge of transmitting data through a medium (electrical cables) that was not originally designed for this purpose. Currently, PLCs are able to compete or complement wireless technologies in a variety of applications, presenting, under certain conditions, a number of advantages over them.