Communication channel characteristics and behaviour of intrabuilding power distribution circuits

Intrabuilding power distribution circuits offer a number of unique advantages for local area networking. To enable the selection of proper error-control codes and protocols for reliable data communication services, error pattern statistics of intrabuilding power line channels are obtained. Also, error-causing disturbances are identified and their relationships to specific types of error patterns are determined. It is found that error occurrence is highly periodic, with periodicity being a function of the power line frequency which is nominally 60Hz in North America. Furthermore, results indicate that error pattern behaviour is relatively insensitive to communication carrier frequency and modulation schemes. Based on the measurement results, hybrid ARQ with bit-interleaving is suggested for reliable data transmission at high data rate (19,200bps). Burst error correcting codes can be used to reduce decoder cost and complexity with some sacrifices in performance. At lower data rates (1,200bps or below), effective error control can be accomplished more easily. Finally, the attenuation characteristics of a number of typical power line channels are presented. It is found that high frequency bypass can be used to improve signal transmission between different phases of the distribution transformer.Applied Science, Faculty ofElectrical and Computer Engineering, Department ofGraduat