Time Reuse algorithms: A novel approach to solving the issue of scalability in dense power line networks

Abstract

The power line (PL) channel is a shared medium and channel capacity is shared among a set of users. As the number of network nodes (users) increases, each user experiences a reduction in the available throughput. Although the issue of throughput maximization in point-to-point PL links has been vastly addressed in the PL literature, very little has been done to this date on the problem of network throughout reduction as the number of PL network nodes increases. This paper address for the first time this issue and proposes algorithms that allow Time Reuse (TR), i.e. the capability of nodes to detect when it is possible to transmit simultaneously to other neighboring devices without causing harmful interference to each other. A TR algorithm is here presented and simulations results confirm its effectiveness in ensuring scalability as the number of network nodes in the network increase.