David Ruiz

Extending the power line LAN up to the neighborhood transformer

This article reports on the performance of audio, video, multimedia, and other high-data-rate in-home networking applications. The article starts by describing the problems encountered in power line communication channels in terms of frequency response and noise characteristics, and explains how in-home power line LANs can be extended to the neighborhood transformer. OFDM physical layers providing speeds of 45 Mb/s and 200 Mb/s as well as QoS and security are introduced. Finally, the results of large tests involving several thousands of nodes are described.

Coexistence in PLC Networks

This paper reviews the current standards related to the coexistence in PLC networks and presents a general scenario where this mechanism is necessary to achieve a good performance (in terms of throughput and QoS). At the last part of this paper several different coexistence mechanisms are presented, from the simplest to more complex options.

In-home AV PLC MAC with neighboring networks support

Audio/video (AV) devices are becoming more and more common in homes today. The immediate consequence is the need for interconnection of all these devices. Power line communications (PLC) may be an excellent candidate to become the networking solution only if several drawbacks are overcome. Power line technologies allow reaching aggregated throughputs of up to 200 Mbps. However, channels are noisy, and overall capacity must be shared among several nodes and different vendors that coexist in the same medium. Besides, FCC regulations impose low power transmission and notching. It is therefore essential to maximize the efficiency of the technology to reach performance levels competitive for audio/video technologies.