A statistical characterization of the in-home power line communication channel is performed from the study of a wide set of measured channels in the 1.8-100 MHz frequency band. The study provides new insights on (a) the relation between the line impedance and the channel frequency response (CFR), and (b) on the spatial relation between the channels that share either the transmitter or the receiver outlet. Furthermore, it confirms the validity of some results presented in the literature that are limited to the 30 MHz band. The study comprises the analysis of the average channel gain, the root-mean-square delay spread and the coherence bandwidth, as well as the relation between such quantities and the phase of the CFR. Closed-form expressions are provided to model the quantities and their relations. Finally, the coverage, i.e., the relation between the maximum achievable rate and the distance, as well as the achievable rate gain offered by the use of the frequency band up to 300 MHz, are studied.

We investigate the statistics of the in-home power line communications channel in the broadband frequency range up to 300 MHz. The analysis is based on the results of an experimental measurement campaign in Italy during which we acquired more than 1300 channels. Firstly, we focus on the channel frequency response. We study the statistics of the amplitude (in dB). In particular, we infer the normal distribution of the quantity. Furthermore, we examine the statistics of the phase. Then, we study the line impedance. We investigate the statistics of the resistive and reactive component of the line impedance and their relation. Finally, we perform the joint analysis of the line impedance components and the amplitude of the channel frequency response.

We propose a random channel generator for in-home power line communications (PLC). We follow a statistical top-down approach and we model the multipath propagation effects of the PLC channel in the frequency domain. Then, we introduce the variability into the model, i.e., we let the parameters associated to the reflections be random, according to a certain statistics. Finally, we fit the model to the experimental data. We target the average path loss and root-mean-square (RMS) delay spread of the measured channels. According to this methodology, we show that the randomly generated channels are in good agreement with the experimental ones in terms of the main metrics.

We consider the use of a relay to provide capacity improvements and range extension for in-home power line communication networks. In particular, we focus on opportunistic relaying where the relay is exploited only if it provides improved capacity w.r.t. the use of direct transmission between the source and the destination. The relay applies a decode and forward scheme and the channel is shared in a time division multiple access mode. The performance is studied in statistically representative in-home power line communication (PLC) networks via the use of a statistical topology model together with the application of transmission line theory for the computation of the channel transfer function among network nodes. The statistical topology model allows determining the capacity improvements as a function of the relay position. Furthermore, we determine the optimal time slot duration for each considered relay configuration, as well as we propose the use of a globally optimal time slot duration that maximizes the average network capacity. The numerical results show that significant capacity improvement can be obtained via opportunistic relaying in in-home PLC networks. The gains are more significant for low SNR scenarios and for networks composed by sub-networks each connected to the main panel via a circuit breaker that introduces signal attenuation.