ECE 575 Power System Communication and Control

2 units
Syllabus overview
• Review of transmission line theory
• Power Line Communication (PLC)
• Multiplexing and telemetering
• Signal processing and data transmission
• Wide Area Monitoring (WAM)
• Intelligent Electronic Devices (IED)
 Power line communication
An alternative solution for the realization of the access networks is offered by the PLC (Power
Line Communications) technology using the power supply grids for communications. Thus,
for the realization of the PLC networks, there is no need for the laying of new communications
cables. Therefore, application of PLC in low-voltage supply networks seems to be a cost-
effective solution for so-called “last mile” communications networks, belonging to the access
area. Power lines were originally devised to transmit electric power from a small number of
sources (the generators) to a large number of sinks (the consumers) in the frequency range of
50-60 Hz.

With the inevitable arrival of broadband access, the demand for sending digital voice, video
and Internet data within the home increases continuously. While retrofitting the houses and
neighbourhoods with special wires is one option, it is expensive and time consuming. PLC
Technology allows the use of the existing and widespread power distribution infrastructure to
provide high speed networking capabilities along with many other benefits.

Initially, the first application involving data transmissions over power lines were primarily
done only to protect sections of the power distribution system in case of faults. (In fact, power
line protection remains one of the primary functions of power line communications.)

Carrier systems and power line carrier applications

1. Home Automation
Power line communications technology can use the household electrical power wiring as a
transmission medium. This is a technique used in home automation for remote control of
lighting and appliances and sensors for alarm systems etc without installation of additional
control wiring. This is primarily based on the X1O Industrial Standard and has been in
development since 1975.

2. Home Networking and Internet Access (Broadband over Power Lines, BPL)
It follows that we can use the low voltage power network as a Local Area Network (LAN) for
conveniently connecting many different computers in the same building. With multiple outlets
in every room, residential power lines are already the most pervasive network in the home.
Using this existing infrastructure to provide high speed networking capabilities provides
several benefits. First of all, there is no need for expensive rewiring of the house.

Secondly, almost all devices that need to be networked are already connected to the AC wiring.
Thus, home networking becomes as simple as plugging the device in the AC outlet.
The market for PLC for consumers is thus twofold: to the home, or "last mile" access; and in
the home, or "last inch" access. The development of the "last inch" by Home networking
companies in the form wireless network adapters and power-line adapters is gradually leading
to widespread home networking; i.e., a wide array of devices connected inside the home in an
intra-home network. This "in-home networking" could transform all power outlets in the
household into broadband connections for PCs, telephones and their accessories, as well as
other 'enabled' electric appliances.
 (a)

(b)

Figure 1. (a) The concept of "last inch" or in-home networking (b) The "last mile" concept.

Broadband over power lines (BPL), also known as power-line internet or Powerband, is the use
of PLC technology to provide broadband Internet access through ordinary power lines. A
computer (or any other device) would need only to plug a BPL "modem" into any outlet in an
equipped building to have highspeed Internet access.

3. Automotive
Power-line technology enables in-vehicle network communication of Data, Voice, Music and
Video signals by digital means over Direct Current (DC) battery power-line. Advanced digital
communication techniques tailored to overcome hostile and noisy environment are
implemented in a small size silicon device. One power line can be used for multiple
independent networks. Prototypes are successfully operational in vehicles using automotive
compatible protocols such as CANbus, LIN-bus over power line (DC-LIN) and DC-bus
developed by Yamar. Automotive applications include Mechatronics (e.g. Climate controls,
Door modules, Immobilizers, Obstacle detectors), Telematics and Multimedia.

Power supply networks

The electrical supply systems consist of three network levels that can be used as a transmission
medium for the realization of PLC networks;
• High-voltage (110–380 kV) networks connect the power stations with large supply regions
or big customers. They usually span very long distances, allowing power exchange within
a continent. High-voltage networks are usually realized with overhead supply cables.
• Medium-voltage (MV) (10–30 kV) networks supply larger areas, cities and big industrial
or commercial customers. Spanned distances are significantly shorter than in the high-
voltage networks. The medium-voltage networks are realized as both overhead and
underground networks.
• Low-voltage (230/400 V) networks supply the end users either as individual customers or
as single users of a bigger customer. Their length is usually up to a few hundred meters. In
urban areas, low-voltage networks are realized with underground cables, whereas in rural
areas they exist usually as overhead networks.

In-home electrical installations belong to the low-voltage network level. However, internal
installations are usually owned by the users. They are connected to the supply network over a
meter unit (M). On the other hand, the rest of the low-voltage network (outdoor) belongs to the
electrical supply utilities. Low-voltage supply networks directly connect the end customers in
a very large number of households worldwide.

Narrowband PLC

The communications over the electrical power supply networks is specified in a European
standard providing a frequency spectrum from 9 to 140 kHz for PLC. This significantly differs
from the American and Japanese standards, which specify a frequency range up to 500 kHz.

Table 1. CENELEC bands for powerline communications

The narrowband PLC networks operate within the frequency range specified by the table
above. This frequency range is divided into three bands: A, to be used by power supply utilities,
and B and C, are provided for private usage. The utilities use narrowband PLC for the
realization of the energy-related services such as remote meter reading, dynamic pricing as
well as observation and control of energy consumption and production. Frequency bands B and
C are mainly used for the realization of building and home automation.
Nowadays, the narrowband PLC systems provide data rates up to a few thousand bits per
second (bps). The maximum distance between two PLC modems can be up to 1 km. To
overcome longer distances, it is necessary to apply a repeater technique.
The narrowband PLC systems apply both narrowband and broadband modulation schemes.
The ASK is not robust against disturbances and, therefore, is not suitable for application in
PLC networks. Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) seems to be complex and is not commonly
used in PLC. Most recent narrowband PLC systems apply Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), and
it is expected that BPSK will be used in future communications systems.
Broadband modulation schemes are also used in narrowband PLC systems. The advantages of
broadband modulation, such as various variants of spread spectrum, are its robustness against
narrowband noise and the selective attenuation effect that exists in the PLC networks. A further
transmission scheme also used in narrowband PLC system is Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing (OFDM).
A very important area for the application of narrowband PLC is building/home automation.
Automation systems realized by PLC can be applied to different tasks to be carried out within
buildings such as:
• Control of various devices that are connected to the internal electro installation, such as
illumination, heating, air-conditioning, elevators, and so on.
• Centralized control of various building systems, such as window technique (darkening)
and door control.
• Security tasks; observance, sensor interconnection, and so on.

Broadband PLC

Broadband PLC systems provide significantly higher data rates (more than 2 Mbps) than
narrowband PLC systems. Where the narrowband networks can realize only a small number of
voice channels and data transmission with very low bit rates, broadband PLC networks offer
the realization of more sophisticated telecommunication services; multiple voice connections,
high-speed data transmission, transfer of video signals, and narrowband services as well.
Therefore, PLC broadband systems are also considered a capable telecommunications
technology.

Electrical supply networks are not designed for information transfer and there are some limiting
factors in the application of broadband PLC technology. Therefore, the distances that can be
covered, as well as the data rates that can be realized by PLC systems, are limited. A further
very important aspect for application of broadband PLC is its Electromagnetic Compatibility
(EMC). For the realization of broadband PLC, a significantly wider frequency spectrum is
needed (up to 30MHz) than is provided within the European standard frequency bands. On the
other hand, a PLC network acts as an antenna becoming a noise source for other communication
systems working in the same frequency range (e.g. various radio services). Because of this,
broadband PLC systems have to operate with a limited signal power, which decreases their
performance (data rates, distances).

Current broadband PLC systems provide data rates beyond 2Mbps in the outdoor arena, which
includes medium- and low-voltage supply networks and up to 12 Mbps in the in-home area.
Medium-voltage PLC technology is usually used for the realization of point-to-point
connections bridging distances up to several hundred meters. Typical application areas of such
systems is the connection of local area networks (LAN) networks between buildings or within
a campus and the connection of antennas and base stations of cellular communication systems
to their backbone networks. Low-voltage PLC technology is used for the realization of the so-
called “last mile” of telecommunication access networks. Because of the importance of
telecommunication access, current development of broadband PLC technology is mostly
directed toward applications in access networks including the in-home area. In contrast to
narrowband PLC systems, there are no specified standards that apply to broadband PLC
networks.

PLC Access networks

The low-voltage supply networks consist of a transformer unit and a number of power supply
cables linking the end users, which are connected to the network over meter units.

A powerline transmission system applied to a low-voltage network uses it as a medium for the
realization of PLC access networks. In this way, the low-voltage networks can be used for the
realization of the “last mile” communications networks.

The low-voltage supply networks are connected to medium- and high-voltage networks via a
transformer unit. The PLC access networks are connected to the backbone communications
networks (WAN) via a base/master station (BS) usually placed within the transformer unit.
Many utilities supplying electrical power have their own telecommunications networks linking
their transformer units and they can be used as a backbone network. If this is not the case, the
transformer units can be connected to a conventional telecommunications network.
The communications signal from the backbone has to be converted into a form that makes
possible its transmission over a low-voltage power supply network. The conversion takes place
in a main/base station of the PLC system.

The PLC subscribers are connected to the network via a PLC modem placed in the electrical
power meter unit or connected to any socket in the internal electrical network. In the first case,
the subscribers within a house or a building are connected to the PLC modem using another
communications technology (e.g. DSL, WLAN). In the second case, the internal electrical
installation is used as a transmission medium that leads to the in-home PLC solution.

The modem converts the signal received from the PLC network into a standard form that can
be processed by conventional communications systems. On the user side, standard
communications interfaces (such as Ethernet and ISDN) are usually offered. Within a house,
the transmission can be realized via a separated communications network or via an internal
electric installation (in-home PLC solution). In this way, a number of communications devices
within a house can also be connected to a PLC access network.

PLC Network Elements

1. Modem
The communications signal in PLC has to be converted into a form that allows the transmission
via electrical networks. For this purpose, PLC networks include some specific network
elements ensuring signal conversion and its transmission along the power grids. The following
two devices exist in every PLC access network:
• PLC modem
• PLC base/master station

A PLC modem connects standard communications equipment, used by the subscribers, to a

powerline transmission medium. The user-side interface can provide various standard
interfaces for different communications devices (e.g. Ethernet and Universal Serial Bus (USB)
interfaces for realization of data transmission. On the other side, the PLC modem is connected
to the power grid using a specific coupling method that allows the feeding of communications
signals to the powerline medium and its reception. The coupling acts as a high pass filter
dividing the communications signal (above 9 kHz) from the electrical power (50 or 60 Hz).

Figure 2. The PLC modem

A PLC base station (master station) connects a PLC access system to its backbone network. It
realizes the connection between the backbone communication network and the powerline
transmission medium. However, the base station does not connect individual subscriber
devices, but it may provide multiple network communications interfaces such as DSL.

Figure 3. The PLC base station

2. Repeater
In some cases, distances between PLC subscribers in a low-voltage supply network and
between individual subscribers and the base station are too long to be bridged by a PLC access
system and so a repeater technique is applied to realize the longer network distance. The
repeaters divide a PLC access network into several network segments. Network segments are
separated by using different frequency bands or by different time slots. In the second case, a
time slot is used for the transmission within the first network segment and another slot for the
second segment.
In the case of frequency-based network segmentation, the repeater receives the transmission
signal on the frequency f1, amplifies and injects it into the network, but on the frequency f2.
There is a limited frequency spectrum that can be used by the PLC technology (approximately
up to 30 MHz), which is specified by the regulatory bodies. So, with the increasing number of
different frequency ranges, the common bandwidth is divided into smaller portions, which
significantly reduces the network capacity. Therefore, a frequency plan for a PLC access
network has to provide usage of as low a number of frequencies as possible. The application
of repeaters also increases the network costs because of the increasing equipment and
installation costs. Therefore, the number of repeaters within a PLC access network has to be
kept as small as possible.

(a)

(b)
Figure 4. Repeaters on the PLC network
PLC Gateway

There are two approaches for the connection of the PLC subscribers via wall sockets to a PLC
access network:
• Direct connection
• Indirect connection over a gateway
In direct connection, PLC modems are directly connected to the entire low-voltage network
and to the PLC base station as well.
In indirect connection, a gateway is used to divide the PLC access network and an in-home
PLC network. It also converts the transmitted signal between the frequencies that are specified
for use in the access and in-home areas. Such a gateway is usually placed near the house meter
unit. However, a PLC gateway can provide additional functions that ensure a division of the
access and in-home areas on the logical network level too. Thus, PLC modems connected
within an in-home network can communicate internally without information flow into the
access area. In this case, a PLC gateway serves as a local base station that controls an in-home
PLC network coordinating the communication between internal PLC modems and also
between internal devices and a PLC access network. Generally, a gateway can also be placed
anywhere in a PLC access network to provide both signal regeneration (repeater function) and
network division on the logical level. In this way, a PLC can be divided into several sub
networks that use the same physical transmission medium (the same low-voltage network), but
exist separately as a kind of virtual network. Where the repeaters provide only simple signal
forwarding between the network segments, the gateways can provide more intelligent division
of the available network resources, ensuring better network efficiency as well.

Figure 5. The PLC gateway

PLC distribution networks

PLC access networks are connected to the backbone network through communications
distribution networks. In general, a distribution network connects a PLC base station with a
local exchange office operated by a network provider.
A reasonable solution for the connection of multiple PLC access networks, placed within a
smaller area, is the realization of a joint distribution network connecting a number of PLC
networks. The distribution networks can be realized in different topologies independent of
applied communications technology (bus, star, and ring).
A chosen network topology has to ensure a cost-effective, but also a reliable, solution
(including a redundancy in the case of failure), and this depends primarily on the location of
PLC access networks in a considered area and on the position of the local exchange office.

Figure 6. Bus topology

Figure 7. Star topology

 Figure 8. Ring topology

The topology of a PLC distribution network can also be a combination of any of the three basic
network structures presented above. The choice for a network topology depends on several
factors, among others:
• Used communications technology causing a specific network topology,
• Availability of a transmission medium within the application area,
• Possibility of the realization of reliable distribution networks
• Geographical structure and distribution of PLC access networks and a local exchange
office.

Problems in PLC

The powerline channel as a transmission medium poses different problems which are
explained below.

1. Design

First of, the powerline carrier was not specifically designed for data transmission and
provides a harsh environment for it. Varying impedance, considerable noise that is not white
in nature and high levels of frequency-dependent attenuation are the main issues.

2. Varying Channel Model

For successful communication, the communication channel must be first modeled and
analyzed accordingly. The channel between any two outlets in a home has the transfer
function of an extremely complicated line network. Power line networks are usually made of
a variety of conductor types, joined almost at random, and terminating into loads of varying
impedance. Over such a transmission medium, the amplitude and phase response may vary
widely with frequency. While the signalmay arriveatthereceiverwithverylitleloss over some
frequencies, it may be completely indistinguishable over other frequencies. Worse, the
channel transfer function itself is time varying since plugging in or switching off of devices
connected to the network would change the network topology. Hence, the channel may be
described as random and time varying with a frequency dependent signal to noise ratio (SNR)
over the transmission bandwidth.

3. High Dependence of Transmitter and Receiver Location

The location of the transmitter or the receiver (in this case the power outlet) could also have a
serious effect on transmission error rates. For example, a receiver close to a noise source
would have a poor signal to noise ratio (SNR) compared to one further away from the noise
source. The noise sources could be home devices plugged into the network.

4. Reflection, Multi-path Fading and Attenuation

Just like a wireless channel, signal propagation does not take place between the transmitter
and the receiver along a line-of-sight path. As a result, additional echoes must be considered.
This echoing occurs because a number of propagation paths exist between the transmitter and
the receiver. Reflectionofthesignaloftenoccursduetothevarious impedance mismatches in the
electric network. Each multi-path would have a certain weight factor attributed to it to
account for the reflection and transmission losses. All reflection and transmission parameters
in a power line channel may be assumed to be less than one. The number of dominant multi-
paths to be considered (N) is often not more than five or six since additional multi-paths are
usually too weak to be of any significance. This is because the more transitions and
reflections that occur along a path, the smaller its weighting factor would be. It has been
observed from channel measurements that at higher frequencies the channel attenuation
increases.

5. Noise

Noise in power lines is a significant problem for data transmission. This is because it rarely has
properties similar to the easily analyzed white Gaussian noise of the receiver with which we
are much familiar with. Typical sources of noise are brush motors, fluorescent and halogen
lamps, switching power supplies and dimmer switches. Apart from these, ingress sources such
as amateur radio transmission can render certain frequencies unfit for communication. The
noise in power lines can be impulsive or frequency selective in nature and, sometimes, both.
Due to high attenuation over the power line, the noise is also location dependent.

Recent studies have indicated that the noise in PLC systems can be typified into four categories.

a) Colored noise: This type of noise has relatively low power spectral density (psd) which
decreases with increasing frequency. It is considered to be the sum of all low power
noise sources and may be time varying.

b) Narrowband background noise: This noise is mainly due to amplitude modulated

sinusoidal signals. This kind of interference is from broadcast stations in the medium
and short wave bands. The interference level varies during different times of the day.

c) Impulse noise that is synchronous with the generator's actual supply frequency:
This type of impulse noise usually repeats at multiples of the supply frequency of
60/50Hz. It has a short duration of about a few microseconds and a power spectral
density that decreases with increasing frequency. The noise is caused from power
supplies operating synchronously to the main's frequency.
 d) Impulse noise asynchronous with the main's frequency: This is the most detrimental
type of noise for data transmission. Its duration varies from a few microseconds to
milliseconds and has a random interarrival symbols during high data transmission at
certain frequencies. It is caused from switching transients in the system network.

With this discussion we are ready to generalize a PLC system into a model as shown in block
diagram form in the figure below.

Figure 9. PLC system model

In summary, Power supply networks are not designed for communications, and they do not
present a favorable transmission medium. The PLC transmission channel is characterized by a
large, frequency-dependent attenuation, changing impedance and fading as well as a strong
influence of noise. On the other hand, broadband PLC networks have to operate in a frequency
spectrum up to 30 MHz, which is used by various radio services too. Therefore, the regulatory
bodies specify very strong limits regarding the electromagnetic emission from PLC networks
to the environment. As a consequence, PLC networks have to operate with a limited signal
power, which reduces network distances and data rates, and also increases sensitivity to
disturbances.

To reduce the negative impact of powerline transmission medium, PLC systems apply efficient
modulation techniques, such as spread spectrum and OFDM. The problem of disturbances can
be solved by well-known error-handling mechanisms (e.g. FEC, ARQ). However, their
application consumes a certain portion of the PLC network capacity due to overhead and
retransmission. The PLC bandwidth is shared by the subscribers and therefore, any reduction
of capacity due to protocol overhead should be minimized. At the same time, PLC systems
have to compete with other access technologies and offer a big palette of telecommunication
services with a satisfactory QoS. Both, good network utilization and provision of QoS
guarantees can be achieved by an efficient MAC layer.
 Figure 10. Disturbances in the PLC network

Layers, Access Methods and Protocols.

The communication in power lines can be divided into two main layers: The Physical Layer
and the Medium Access Control (MAC) Layer. The Physical Layer defines the modulation
techniques to transmit data over the power lines while the MAC protocol specifies as resource
sharing strategy i.e. the access of multiple users to the network transmission capacity based on
a fixed resource sharing protocol. Communicating at the PLC Physical Layer demands robust
modulation techniques like Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), Code-Division Multiple Access
(CDMA) and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). For low cost, low data
rate applications, such as power line protection and telemetering, FSK is seen as a good
solution. For data rates up to 1Mbps, the CDMA technique may provide an effective solution.
However, for high data applications beyond that, OFDM is the technology of choice for PLC.
For MAC, there are generally two categories of access schemes.

1. Fixed Access: It assigns each user a predetermined or fixed channel capacity

irrespective of whether the user needs to transmit data at that time. Such schemes are
not suitable for traffic in bursts, such as data transmission that is provided by PLC.
2. Dynamic Access: These protocols may be classified into two separate categories:
Contention based protocols where collisions occur and Arbitration protocols which are
collision free. Contention protocols may not be able to guarantee a quality of service
(QoS), especially for time critical applications, since collisions might occur and data
might have to be retransmitted. Arbitration based protocols are more capable of
guaranteeing a certain QoS. However, contention based protocols may actually provide
higher data rates in applications which do not have stringent QoS requirements (e.g.,
Internet applications). This is because they require much less overhead compared to
arbitration protocols (polling, reservation, token passing). The widely studied protocols
for MAC Layer in PLC are:
a) Polling: It is a primary/secondary access method in which the primary station asks
the secondary station if it has any data to send. Arbitration based polling can handle
heavy traffic and does provide QoS guarantees.
b) Aloha: It is a random access protocol in which a user accesses a channel as soon as
it has data to send.
c) Token passing schemes: These schemes, e.g. token ring, token bus, are efficient
under heavy symmetric loads. However, they can be expensive to implement and
can cause serious problems with lost tokens on noisy unreliable channels such as
PLs.
d) Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA): CSMA with overload detection has been
proposed for PLC. CSMA is a contention based access method in which each station
listens to the line before transmitting data. CSMA is efficient under light to medium
traffic loads and for many low-duty-cycle bursty terminals (e.g. Internet browsing).
i. Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) senses the channel for a collision after
transmitting. When it senses a collision, it waits a random amount of
time before retransmitting again. But on power lines the wide variation
of the received signal and noise levels make collision detection difficult
and unreliable.
ii. Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA). As in the CSMA/CD method, each
device listens to the signal level to determine when the channel is idle.
Unlike CSMA/CD, it then waits for a random amount of time before
trying to send a packet. Packet size is kept small due to the PLC' s hostile
channel characteristics. Though this means more overhead, overall data
rate is improved since it means less retransmission.