Technology - Broadband Power Line 1 - Architecture and Techniques

Synopsis

This report discusses the many variations in Low Voltage and Medium Voltage powerline architecture, including the ‘small transformer’ system used in North America and the ‘large transformer’ approach used in 230 volt countries. We discuss how the propagation, attenuation, interference and other characteristics of these networks result in a variety of architectures for access BPL networks.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
• 2. Introduction
  • 2.1 Access (BPL)
  • 2.2 In-home (PLC)
• 3. Power infrastructure architectures
  • 3.1 Long distance cables
  • 3.2 Medium Voltage (MV) cables
    • 3.2.1 Three-phase power
    • 3.2.2 Single Wire Earth Return (SWER)
  • 3.3 LV cables
    • 3.3.1 Aerial - bare conductors
    • 3.3.2 Aerial Bundled Cable
    • 3.3.3 Underground
    • 3.3.4 230-240 volt large transformer pattern
    • 3.3.5 100-120 volt small transformer pattern
• 4. BPL techniques and architectures
  • 4.1 LV to the home
  • 4.2 MV along the street
• 5. Propagation, attenuation, isolation and crosstalk
  • 5.1 Differences between BPL and DSL or HFC
  • 5.2 Powerlines cannot be broken into segments
  • 5.3 RF filtering and isolation is impossible
  • 5.4 Crosstalk limits the use of repeaters and multiple nodes
    • 5.4.1 Frequency Division Repeaters
    • 5.4.2 Problems with frequency division filtering
    • 5.4.3 Fibre deeper into the service area
  • 5.5 Attenuation is a blessing and a curse
    • 5.5.1 No attenuation
    • 5.5.2 High attenuation
    • 5.5.3 FDM with multiple fibre-BPL nodes
  • 5.6 Fundamental limits
• 6. Frequencies and modulation Techniques
  • 6.1 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)
  • 6.2 Wider carriers and spread spectrum
• 7. Related reports