Ijettcs 2014 04 06 067

International Journal of EmergingTrends & Technology in Computer Science(IJETTCS)
Web Site: www.ijettcs.org Email: editor@ijettcs.org, editorijettcs@gmail.com

Volume 3, Issue 2, March April 2014 ISSN 2278-6856

Volume 3, Issue 2 March April 2014 Page 123

Abstract: Power line communications (PLC) is a favorable
technique for many smart grid applications. By transmitting
information over the existing power line infrastructure, PLC
has the benefit of low deployment cost. However, due to low
transmit power, limited bandwidth, and harsh channel
conditions, reliable long distance and high-capacity PLC is
challenging. This paper presents the effect of network
topology, multipath signal propagation, cluster index
(transmission distance) and frequency on signal transmission
capacity of power line network. Cable losses also attenuate
the signal and thus reduce signal carrying capacity of power
line network. Study of these parameters help to find out the
losses in PLC network which later use to built the PLC
model

Keywords: Powerline communication, network topology,
cluster index, cable losses, attenuation.

1. INTRODUCTION
The powerline network differs considerably in topology,
structure, and physical properties from conventional
media such as twisted pair, coaxial, or fiber-optic cables.
Therefore PLC systems have to encounter rather hostile
properties [2]. For computer simulations oriented to
appropriate system design, models of the transfer
characteristics of the mains network are of major interest.
Only in the case of very simple topologies, such as a cable
with a single branch, the physical reasons for the
observed results (cable loss, reflection, and transmission
factors) can be easily identified. In real network
topologieswhich are always more complicateda back-
tracing of measurement results to physical reasons will
generally turn out to be impossible. The proposed model
will nevertheless describe the frequency response with
sufficient precision. The parameters, however, cannot be
directly derived from physical properties of the network.
The smart grid (SG) uses two-way electricity and
information flow to create a widely distributed and
automated energy delivery network in order to meet the
efficiency and reliability requirements of the modern
society. Data communications is the key technology in SG
for information exchange. In SG applications, the data
communications needs to ensure reliability and broad
coverage, guarantee security and privacy, and support
quality of service (QoS) [1]. Among all communication
architectures, power line communications (PLC) [2]
utilizes the existing powerline infrastructure to transmit
information alongside the electric power, and provide a
solution with many advantages including cost-effectiveness
effectiveness and broad coverage in the SG. The
communication can reach anywhere a powerline exists,
especially places where radio signal cannot propagate
through, e.g., underground, underwater, and rooms with
metal walls. In recent years, several PLC-enabled
applications have been deployed or proposed. The utility
companies around the world have been using narrowband
(NB) PLC (3500 kHz) for automation and control
applications. The broadband (BB) PLC systems which
operate in the high frequency band (230 MHz) with data
rates up to a few hundred Mbps have been advocated to
provide Internet access for residential customers and
facilitate local area networking within home/office [3].
PLC is believed to play a significant role in future SG [4].
However, as the powerline is originally designed for
electrical energy delivery but not for communication
purposes, direct-link communications over the powerline
has limited capacity and transmission distance. the signal
attenuation is severe for long distance and high frequency
signal propagation, resulting in limited bandwidth .In
terrestrial wireless environments, relay communications
have been shown to enhance reliability and extend
communication range . Thus relay-aided (RA-) PLC is an
attractive option for long-range PLC.

2. POWER-LINE COMMUNICATION
Communication using power line network cost effective
solution as it utilizes the existing infrastructure. Today
most of the powerline grids are smart grids and at high
bandwidth (2-30 MHz) communication signal passes
through the powerline helps to transfer data at faster rate.
Various factors like network topology, multipath signal
propagation, cable loss affects the channel capacity to
carry the communication signal. Also parameters like
frequency and signal transmission distance causes
attenuation in signal.

3. FACTORS AFFECTING THE POWERLINE
COMMUNICATION
3.1 Topology of the Mains Network
Opposite to the telephone copper loop, the powerline
local loop access network does not consist of point-to-
point connections between substations and customers
premises, but represents a line bus. A typical access link
between a substation and a customer consists of the
distributor cable, or a series connection of distributor
cables, and the branching house connection cables, both
with real valued characteristic impedance Z
L
. The house
service cable ends at a house connection box, followed by
Signal Attenuation in Powerline
Communication Channel

Dipashree Duche, Prof.Vidya Gogate

Shah And Anchor Kutchhi Engineering College Mumbai University
W.T. Patil Marg , Next to Dukes Co., Chembur, Mumbai,
Maharashtra 400088, India.


the indoor wiring, which can be modeled from the point
of view of the access network by a complex termination
impedance Z
H
(f) .The impedance of the house connection
point is usually low due to numerous branching in-house
cables. Moreover, ZH (f) appears very stationary, since
the low impedance point hides impedance variations
within the indoor network. Numerous reflections
are caused by the joints of the house service cables, house
connection boxes, and the joints at series connections of
cables with different characteristic impedance.

Figure 1 A Practical In-door PLC Topology

In-door and wide area network uses T type topology of the
PLC network. A randomly generated networks topology is
used in the signal propagation behavior characteristics of
a large number of real PLC network. Series arrangement
of branches is connected to backbone cables. According to
the impedance carry-back [11] method all the sub-
branches can be merged into the corresponding connected
branch. Thus the PLC network can be considered
equivalent to the topology shown in Fig. 1 which consists
of backbone cables and first order branches.
The components and configuration of the network
topology are described as follows:
In the typical network topology NAYY35 and NAYY150
types of cables are used for indoor power distribution,
outlet-outlet and inter-junction connections respectively.
The cables, outlet (circles) and junctions (rectangular)
build a PLC network .The junctions can be a derivation
box in practice. The outlets can be an open circuit power
socket or a socket plugged with an appliance. Reflection
signals occur at terminals with open sockets or
mismatched appliances.
Figure 2 [5] shows the structure of a power cable which is
used in [2], Table 1 and Table 2 show the geometric
parameters and the electromagnetic parameters of
NAYY150 and NAYY35 cables. The insulator between
conductors is PVC. When feeding signals into two
adjacent conductors, most of the electric field is
concentrated between these two conductors. The lumped
parameters of the cable can be calculated by the geometric
dimensions and material electrical properties.

Figure 2 Cable Structures
Fig 2 the Cross-Section of a Four Conductor Power Cable,
with three live connections (L1, L2 and L3) and one
neutral connection (N). The scalar a represents the space
between two adjacent conductors which is filled by PVC.
Scalar is the radius from geometry centre to the outer
edge of the conductor.

Table 1: Cable Geometry Properties [5]

Table 2: Cable Electric Properties [5]
Conductivity of Copper k
58 x 10
6
S/m
Dissipation of PVC

0.025
Relative Permittivity of
PVC

4
Free Space Permittivity

8.5419 x
10
-12
F/m
Relative Permeability of
Cooper

1
Free Space Permeability

1.2566 x
10
-6
(H/m)

In power line networks, the branch density may vary from
scenario. As an example scenario, is set to 5 which
indicate an average of 5 branches per 100 m of cable. .
For each connection type, the Probability Density
Function (PDF) of branch length is given as function of
the side length of the cell in building. In this dissertation,
the branch length is generated according the PDFs in [11]
with a maximum side length of up to 20m.
To approach a realistic scenario, half of the terminals are
randomly set to open circuit. For the remaining sockets,
the impedance is randomly allocated a discrete value
between 5 ohms to 200 ohms with a 5 ohm interval.

3.2 Multipath Signal Propagation
Signal propagation does not only take place along a direct
line-of-sight path between transmitter and receiver, but
additional paths (echoes) must also be considered. The
result is a multipath scenario with frequency selective
fading.
Multipath signal propagation is studied by a simple
example which can be easily analyzed (Fig. 3). The link
has only one branch and consists of the segments (1), (2),
and (3) with the lengths l
1
, l
2
, l
3
and and the
characteristic impedances Z
L1
, Z
L2
, Z
L3
.

Cable Properties

NAYY150
(mm)
NAYY35
(mm)
a (Space
between two
conductor)
1.8 1.2
r (Scalar radius)
6.909
9
5.9161


Figure 3 Multipath Signal Propagation

In order to simplify the considerations, A and C are
assumed to be matched, which means ZA =ZL1 and
ZC.=ZL2 The remaining points for reflections are B and
D , with the reflection factors denoted as r1B,r3D,r3B ,
and the transmission factors denoted as , .With these
assumptions, an infinite number of propagation paths is
possible in principle, due to multiple reflections (i.e.
ABC , . ABDBC, and so on). Each path has
a weighting factor g
i
, representing the product of the
reflection and transmission factors along the path. All
reflection and transmission factors at powerlines are
basically less or equal to one. This is due to the fact that
transmission occurs only at joints, where the load of a
parallel connection of two or more cables leads to
resulting impedance being lower than the characteristic
impedance of the feeding cable. Hence, the weighting
factor g
i
a product of transmission and reflection factors is
also less or equal to one, i.e.
The more transitions and reflections occur along a path,
the smaller the weighting factor gi will be. Furthermore,
longer paths exhibit higher attenuation, so that they
contribute less to the overall signal at the receiving point.
Due to these facts, it is reasonable to approximate the
basically infinite number of paths by only N dominant
paths, and to make N as small as possible.

The delay T
i
of a path

can be calculated from the dielectric constant
r
of the
insulating material, the speed of light C
0
, and the lengths
d
i
of the cables.

The losses of cables cause an attenuation A(f,
d),decreasing
with length and frequency. The signal components of the
individual paths have to be combined by superposition.
Therefore, the frequency response from A to C can be
expressed as

(2)

Signal propagation in more complicated networks with
more branches can be partitioned into appropriate paths
in a similar way.
3.3 Transmission Line Theory
At high frequencies, the wavelength is much smaller than
the circuit size, resulting in different phases at different
locations in the circuit. Quasi-static circuit theory cannot
be applied. We need to use transmission line theory. A
transmission line is a two-port network connecting a
generator circuit at the sending end to a load at the
receiving end. At high, dielectric loss is caused when the
insulating material inside the transmission line absorb
energy from a.c. electric field and convert it to heat [7]
Unlike in circuit theory, the length of a transmission line
is of utmost importance in transmission line analysis.
Using KVL and KCL circuit theorems, we can derive the
following differential equations for this section of
transmission line.

By letting z0, these lead to coupled equations:

Figure 4 Transmission Line in Power Circuit

For sinusoidal varying voltages and currents, we can use
phasor forms.

V(z) and I(z) are called phasors of v(z,t) and i(z,t). In
terms of phasors, the coupled equations can be written as:

After decoupling,



Figure 5 Circuit Layout

is the complex propagation constant whose real part
is the attenuation constant (Np/m) and whose imaginary
part is the phase constant (rad/m).Generally, these
quantities are functions of . For modeling purposes, any
of the cable types described above is regarded as a two-
conductor plus reference wire transmission line, with
surrounding dielectric material of relative dielectric
constant r. Transmission lines configuration specified
above parallel two-conductor plus reference wire cable,
having solid conducting cores and being surrounded by
the same dielectric material gives the following
distributed parameters:
The lumped parameters such as capacitance (C),
inductance (L), resistance (R) and conductance (G) per
unit length can be calculated by applying the
parameters.[7]

3.4 Two Port Network and Transfer Function
The power line model is considered as a black box
described by transfer function, the method for modeling
the transfer function of a power line channel uses the
chain parameter matrices describing the relation between
input and output voltage and current of two-port
network. The voltage and current transfer characteristics
of each segment in the above topology can be expressed
by ABCD parameters which can be illustrated by the
Two-Port network (2PN) in Fig. 6 [11]

Figure 6 ABCD Parameters

The relations between the inputs and outputs of the 2PN
in Fig. 6 can be formulated as:

Where, Tf is called the transmission matrix. The
definition of the ABCD parameters can be seen that A, B,
C and D are functions of frequency. Then, the transfer
function of this segment can be written as:

The transmission matrix of a shunt segment is:

Thus, the network above can be considered as a series of
cascaded segments. After applying the Chain Rule (CR),
the transmission matrix for the complete network can be
calculated as:

The ABCD matrix for the transmission line with:
Zc=characteristic impedance,
=propagation constant and
l =length can be calculated as,

Where, T
if
is the transmission matrix of the ith segment.
Following the above steps are computed all the shunted
segments. The Following Features of Indoor PLC
Channel is based on the modeling result. Obvious
frequency selective fading in the frequency domain and
multipath signal propagation in the time domain.

Frequency Selective fading: A coherence bandwidth of (it
is a statistical measurement of the range of frequencies
over which channel can be considered flat.) the channel
is smaller than the bandwidth of the signal.
Higher attenuation at higher frequencies.


Attenuation increasing with the transmitter to receiver
distance
Above steps has been described channel transfer function
for the frequency domain response in (1) is shown in
Fig.7

Figure 7 Transfer function of channel against frequency

Above fig.7 indicating the effect of channel frequencies in
MHZ versus magnitude (db) of different impedances .At
low frequency, magnitude is maximum & high frequency
Magnitude is low.There should be infinitely many paths
in a single channel impulse response. In order to extract
the path features, herein only paths with a magnitude
which is larger than a certain threshold (20dB below the
maximum peak Magnitude) is consider for analysis. [7]

3.5 Cable Losses
In Power line communication, cable has important role of
carrying the signal from source to destination. The
propagating signals are affected by attenuation increasing
with length and frequency

This cause loss in signal which is of main three types-
1. Resistive Loss
2. Dielectric Loss
3. Radiated Loss
In power line power dissipated due to conductor and
insulator properties of cable is called as cable losses.
Resistive loss produces due to skin effect of conductor. It
increases with increase in frequency. Dielectric loss
which causes by voltage difference across the dielectric
part of cable Radiated loss which are negligible .Cable
parameters R,L,G,C can be roughly estimated by the
geometric dimensions and some material properties
which influences the losses. From equation (2) The
Conductance per unit length G is mainly influenced by
the dissipation factor of the dielectric material (usually
PVC) and proportional to frequency. Where R<<L and
G<< C.. [1] The complex propagation constant
can be determined using the simplified expression [3]

The real part of the propagation constant, the attenuation
factor , increases with square rate root of frequency. The
average loss due to all above losses is calculated by the
real part of propagation constant and signal propagation
distance. As propagation constant depends upon the
frequency, cable losses are depends on frequency and
propagation distance. [3] According to [3], the cable
losses in the frequency domain of a powerline can be
approximately written: [5]

as: a0 =(0.0002086*Dist) +0.0008739; i)
a1 =(0.00002644*Dist) +0.00004644; ii)
k =(-0.00009098*Dist)-0.000001126; iii)
b0 =(-0.0006432*Dist)-0.000001126; iv) [5]

Where,
a
0,
a1, k- the attenuation factor.
a
0,
a1, b0 are linear functions of path propagation d for

a
given cable, (from equation i),ii),iii),iv))

Dist=d=path propagation distance.
F=Frequency in MHZ
and can be calculated by the cable parameters.

Figure 8 Effect of Frequency Sampling Index on Average
Channel Gain

At higher frequency losses are more and cause reduction
in channel gain. Cable loss is higher at higher cluster
distance. Thus cable loss becomes function of path
propagation distance. Based on above parameters cable
loss increases with increase in frequency and with
increase in propagation distance. Cable loss effect in time
domain is calculated with the help of inverse Fourier
transform of equation (17) and can be written as At (t,
vTi ) .[3]
Propagation distance for each path in certain channel is
calculated

Where, v= TEM wave propagation speed in the cable
depends on permittivity of the insulator of the cable.
Time domain impulse response cable loss is calculated as
[17]



Figure 9 Transfer function of channel against frequency

3.6 Signal Attenuation for different transmission
distance
Power line signal propagation is dominated by multiple
signal reflections due to various branches and
impendence mismatch. Multipath model is obtained by
real channel measurement and parameters like delay,
attenuation of each path. Signal Attenuation Model is
multipath model with unique method of analysis of
frequency response H (f) against the length (D) of a power
line link considering only dominant path and avoiding
other paths. This makes model simpler and still effective
to capture basis attenuation characteristics of PLC. [6]

3.6.1 Numerical Analysis
The frequency response H (f) of a powerline link with
length D can be approximated as

Where,
k =attenuation factor (value between 0.5 and 1),
f =Frequency (MHz)
D=Distance
And are constants depending on the system
configuration considering &
and f=0.7 [13] signal attenuation is
plotted against the different distances (D)
It is observed that strong attenuation occurs for long
distances and at high frequency. In order to reduce the
attenuation we need to reduce the frequency or power line
link distances. As BB PLC has to operate at high
frequency for better service requirement we can only
reduce the distance of single power line link by
introducing the relays .Thus long power line links get
reduce to short power link and we can able to reduce the
attenuation without compromising on frequency.
Consider BB PLC for power line BB access systems
operating in the frequency band from 2 MHz to 20 MHz
In practice, these systems are installed over the electricity
distribution grid and provide services to end customers of
utilities, such as broadband internet access, VoIP, and
video services. The signal attenuation in [12] with the
above parameters is depicted in Fig. 10. It can be
observed that strong attenuation occurs at long
transmission distances and high frequencies. Hence the
available bandwidth and system capacity are expected to
be small for long-distance transmission. By adding a relay
into the transmission system, a long link is divided into
two short links. Shorter links have weaker attenuation
and at the same time offer a greater bandwidth, thus
motivating PLC. [6]

Figure 10 Signal attenuation for different lengths
(.120m and 240 m and 360m and 480m.)

4. RESULT AND ANALYSIS
4.1 Effect of frequency on Transfer Function With
increase in frequency there is increase in attenuation.

Algorithm:
1) Input values of cables parameters R,L,G,C
2) Input values of A, B, C, D, Zc, Zs parameters of
two port network.
3) Calculate the transfer function of two port network
in frequency domain using formula (9)
4) Display the for loop for frequency
5) Call the values of frequency and characteristics
impendence in the parameter array
6) Display the output of transfer function versus
frequency

Figure 11 Transfer function of channel against
frequency

4.2 Cable losses
With increase in cluster index there is increase in cable
losses which results into reduction in channel gain.

Algorithm:
1) Input value of cluster index, distance, magnitude
coefficient.
2) Calculate cluster index using formula.
3) Calculate cable losses in the frequency domain
4) Calculate the cable losses in the time domain using
inverse Fourier transform of frequency domain
cable loss equation (14) & (16).
5) Display the output.


Figure 12 Frequency Domain Sampling Index on
Average Channel Gain

Figure 13 Effect of Time Domain Sampling Index on
Normalized Amplitude

4.3 Signal attenuation
In Signal attenuation model bandwidth and capacity are
distant and frequency dependent. With increase in
frequency and distance attenuation increases.

Algorithm:
1) Input values lengths, frequency,
2) Finding the double exponential function
3) Calculate the frequency response of signal.
Equation (17)
4) Display the output.

FIGURE 14 SIGNAL ATTENUATION FOR DIFFERENT LENGTHS
(.120M AND 240 M AND 360M AND 480M.)

5. CONCLUSION
Signal carrying capacity in powerline communication is
largely affected by various factors which cause losses in
signal. Network topology, cable structure and losses
related with cable structure affects the signal carrying
capacity. In two ports network with increase in frequency
there is attenuation in magnitude of transfer function.
Cable losses depend on propagation distance and
frequency .We observed that with increase in distance and
frequency there is a reduction in channel gain. Short
distance impulse i.e. observed at lesser time sampling
index has higher amplitude compared with long distance
impulse i.e. observed at increased time sampling index.
We have seen that strong attenuation occurs at long
transmission distance and high frequency which affects
the bandwidth and signal carrying capacity of
transmission line.

REFERENCE
[1] M. Busser, T. Waldeck, and K. Dostert,
Telecommunication applications over the low
voltage power distribution grid, in Proc. IEEE 5th
Int. Symp. Spread Spectrum Techniques &
Applications, vol. 1/3, Sun.
[2] S. Galli, A. Scaglione, Z. Wang, For the Grid and
Through the Grid: The Role of Power Line
Communications in the Smart Grid, Proceedings of
the IEEE, vol.99, no.6, pp.998- 1027, June 2011.
[3] W. Cho, R. Cao, and L. Yang, Optimum resource
allocation for amplify-and-forward relay networks
with differential modulation, IEEE Trans. Signal
Process., vol. 56, no. 11, pp. 56805691, Nov. 2008
[4] S. Galli, A. Scaglione, and Z.Wang, For the grid
and through the grid: The role of power line
Communications in the smart grid, Proc. IEEE, vol.
99, no. 6, pp. 9981027, Jun. 2011
[5] Bo Tan, Student Member, IEEE, and John S.
Thompson, Member, IEEE Parameter Appendix
[6] X. Ding and J. Meng, Channel Estimation and
Simulation of an Indoor Power-Line Network via a
Recursive Time-Domain Solution in IEEE
Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol. 24, no. 1, pp.
144152, 2009.
[7] Hon Tat Hui Transmission Lines Basic
TheoriesEE2011
[8] Bo Tan, Student Member, IEEE, and John S.
Thompson, Member, IEEE Powerline
Communications Channel Modeling Methodology
Based on Statistical Features
[9] H. Hrasnica, A. Haidine, R Lehnert, Broadband
Powerline Communications Networks-Network
Design, John Wiley & Sons, June 2004.
[10] Xilin Cheng, Relay-Aided Amplify-and-Forward
Powerline Communications Student Member,
IEEE, RuiCao, Member, IEEE, and Liuqing Yang,
Senior Member, IEEE
[11] Petr MLYNEK,Jiri MISUREC,Martin KOUTNY,
Pavel SILHAVY Two-port Networ ransfer Function
for Power Line Topology Modeling
[12] H. Hrasnica, A. Haidine, R Lehnert, Broadband
Powerline Communications Network Network
Design, John Wiley & Sons, June 2004


AUTHOR
Mrs.Dipashree Duche, Mrs.Prof.Vidya
Gogate have presented paper on Power
Line Communication Performance Channel
Characteristics in an international
conference on Advances in Communication and
Computing Technologies (ICACACT-2013) at
Padmabhushan Vasantdada Patil Pratishthans College of
Engineering, Mumbai, on 11 August 2013.

Mrs.Dipashree Duche, Mrs.Prof.Vidya
Gogate have presented paper on -Multipath
Characterization and Statistical Channel
Modeling of Indoor Power Line Network in
a national conference on TechStream (Infra,Info,Bio)
on 21 & 22 Feb 2014 at Pillai HOC College of
Engineering & Technology.

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