Data Communications over Power Lines

Since its introduction in the early 1990s, use of the Internet has exploded. Access to the Internet is fast becoming a need, not just a want, for most homeowners. Although broadband access is now available for most homes, distribution within the household has remained a barrier to realization of its full benefits. The home network connects to the Internet through a central gateway making the Web accessible at every connection point. Information and peripheral devices can also be shared across the network. Three solutions can be considered for home networking: Ethernet and phone line, wireless, and powerline networks. Ethernet and phone line solutions provide fast, reliable service but require snaking cable to each connection. Network nodes must be identified and placed during construction of new homes. Considerable renovation is required to retrofit older homes or to place additional nodes. Wireless networks provide nodes everywhere. They are ideal for hand-held or battery-operated devices, but the addition of RF conversion hardware makes this an inherently costlier solution. Additionally, wireless networks suffer from security concerns and competing standards. Powerline networking uses power lines existing in the home. Nodes are already available throughout the household, making it a low-cost solution. Each room in a residence possesses one, two, or more outlets. Any device requiring power will already be attached to the powerline network making it convenient and accessible to low-tech users. Home network users seek three major factors in any solution: ease-of-use, low cost, and ubiquitous node availability. Powerline networking delivers all three. So, while it is true that powerline networking faces some technical hurdles, it remains a compelling choice.

Data Communications over Power Lines

Challenges
Several factors present technical challenges to using power lines for data communication. Cogencys HomePlug technology is able to address these challenges through the unique combination of OFDM, signal coding, and error correction techniques. Noise Sources on Power Line The power line is admittedly a noisy environment for data communications (see Figure 1).
Figure 2

Devices on the powerline network transmit to multiple stations simultaneously. Each station-

to-station communication presents a unique channel profile. Noise and distortion effects can result in a high rate of bit errors. Characteristics of the devices present on the power line and the line itself contribute to the complexity of the channel transfer function. The combination of multipath distortion, complex wiring topology, and line characteristics create an extremely complex channel transfer function. Wide Dynamic Range Signal attenuation can also occur due to the physical topology of the network (as shown in Figure 3), varying termination impedances, loads on the power line, and characteristics of the transmission line itself resulting in a wide dynamic range between any two nodes. Signal transmission between two outlets that are close together (such as A to B) will often experience little attenuation, but for nodes that

Figure 1

Noise sources include electronic and electromechanical sources. Brush motors (found in vacuums) are particularly noisy. Dimmer switches, fluorescent and halogen lights create impulse noise related to the 50 or 60 Hz power cycle. Power supplies create harmonics related to the switching frequency. Outside transmissions such as impulsive noise, RF interference (short wave and amateur radio), and RF pickup of other bands can affect the quality of the channel on the power line. These noise sources interfere with reception of data signals. At certain frequencies, the amplitude of the data signal can fall far enough below the noise floor to be lost. Multipath Multipath effects can distort the signal during transmission. Reflections of the original (or data) signal can arrive slightly ahead of or behind the desired receive signal resulting in symbol error (see Figure 2).

Figure 3

Data Communications over Power Lines

are far apart (such as C to F), the attenuation can be significant. Some attenuation is also experienced due to the effects of 2-phase wiring. North American homes typically have two phases of 110 Volt wiring (the phases are used in tandem to achieve the 220 Volts required for large appliances such as a dryer or oven). Powerline data signals are naturally coupled from one phase to the other resulting in an attenuation that is generally less than 10 dB. Time-varying Conditions All the effects discussed above vary with time (see Figure 4). Noise sources differ as devices are plugged into or removed from the line. Even the character of one particular noise source can be time-dependent (e.g. fluorescent or halogen lights whose power function varies with time). Multipath distortion effects vary as the channel characteristics change due to load variations. Outside sources of interference (such as RF) vary with the time of day, the proximity of the transmitters, and strength of the power source.

Meeting the Challenge

Cogency technology for powerline networking includes a physical layer (PHY) and Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. The PHY layer implements the modulation techniques, the coding, and basic packet formats. The PHY uses packet-based OFDM as the transmission technique. The MAC uses a CSMA/CA protocol to mediate access between multiple clients. The MAC/PHY provides per-packet equalization and efficient access to the shared powerline medium. In addition, a priority resolution signaling scheme enables latency-sensitive applications such as VoIP and multi-player gaming. OFDM Technology The Cogency MAC/PHY uses OFDM technology to carry the signal at a high data rate with few bit errors. OFDM modulation generates a set of tones in the frequency domain. The tones are orthogonal to each other ensuring that there is no inter-tone interference (i.e. the information carried on any one tone is not affected by any other tone).

Figure 4

Data Communications over Power Lines

Figure 5

Figure 5 illustrates the conversion process that takes place at the transmitter. Forward Error Correction (FEC) redundantly encodes the data to compensate for harsh channel characteristics. The encoded data is mapped onto a set of tones which may be all available tones or a pre-agreed upon subset. OFDM modulation, generated using a fast Fourier transform (FFT) processor, converts signals in the frequency domain to the time domain. The inverse FFT, applied at the transmitter, produces an OFDM symbol. Intersymbol interference is a major complication caused by multipath propagation. This is handled through time domain processing. If a copy of the signal arrives a significant fraction of one OFDM-symbol-time late, symbol error can occur. These multipath distortion effects can be almost completely mitigated by adding a guard time (cyclic prefix) to the OFDM symbol (as shown in Figure 6). The prefix is essentially a copy of the last few microseconds of the symbol. The cyclic prefix absorbs any multipath interference that occurs when time-delayed reflections of the original symbol arrive at the receiver. By ensuring that the cyclic prefix is as long as the longest possible

delay variation, the integrity of the OFDM symbol is preserved. At the receiver, the reverse process takes place (as shown in Figure 7). The cyclic prefix is removed. An FFT is applied on each symbol, converting it from the time domain to the frequency domain. Forward Error Correction OFDM provides resistance to deep, narrow fades by using many carriers. The loss of a few tones can be compensated for with FEC coding which redundantly encodes data across all active tones. If some of the tones are not received due to noise or other effects, the remaining carriers can be used to recover the original signal. Automatic channel adaptation allows the system to respond to current conditions on the power line. The tones are modulated using either differential BPSK (76 bits per OFDM symbol) or QPSK (152 bits per OFDM symbol). For harsh channels or when channel adaptation has not been performed, the payload data is sent using ROBO (ROBust OFDM) mode. ROBO mode uses all available tones with differential BPSK

Figure 6

Data Communications over Power Lines

Figure 7

modulation on each tone, as well as heavy error correction and interleaving. ROBO mode is useful for very harsh channels or when establishing initial contact with another device to negotiate the optimum communication scheme. Convolutional or Reed-Solomon coding are used for payload data. Convolutional coding rates of can be punctured to achieve a rate of . A combination of coding rate and modulation is used to adjust to varying channel conditions. Product encoding is used for frame control fields ensuring that all devices on the network can detect and decode this information. Channel Adaptation The tone map indicates the set of tones to be used for a particular communication between two stations. The tone map to be used is negotiated during channel adaptation. This is performed when a station first joins the network, periodically to ensure optimum throughput, or when the quality of the channel varies. Channel

adaptation is also used to specify the modulation or coding schemes for payload data. If significant fading occurs, specific tones can be dropped from the transmission. When an acknowledgement is not received, the packets are resent. This provides extra redundancy to guard against effects such as in-band jammers or impulsive noise. Data Packets Each data packet carries a series of OFDM symbols (as shown in Figure 8). The packet consists of a start-of-frame delimiter, the payload, and an end-of-frame delimiter. A response delimiter is transmitted to indicate whether or not the transmission was successfully received. The start-of-frame delimiter indicates that a frame has begun, specifies the length of the frame, and the index of the tone map to be used. Delimiters consist of a preamble sequence

Figure 8

Data Communications over Power Lines

followed by a frame control field. The preamble allows a receiver to reliably detect a packet and acts as a symbol synchronization and gain control reference. Frame control fields are highly encoded to ensure decoding of media access information by all devices on the network. Data packets can be transmitted in two modes: to all stations or to one specific station. When sending a transmission to a single station, a specific tone set must be used. Both the sending and receiving station agree on an optimum tone map which maximizes capacity. Instead of negotiating a common tone map that applies to each device, broadcast transmissions use all tones. This results in lower throughput because of the unique channel response between any two devices. Note that data is encoded on all carriers when transmitting frame control symbols. Reliability Transmissions sometimes fail because of collisions with other transmissions or due to severe noise on the line. The MAC/PHY acknowledges receipt of unicast transmissions by sending a response delimiter (ACK) to indicate a successful transmission. A NACK signal is sent to indicate that the packet was received but with errors. The MAC/PHY uses Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) to guarantee reliability. Receipt of a NACK (or no response) results in the packet being resent. Carrier Sense As described earlier, each data packet carries a start-of-frame and an end-of-frame delimiter. The frame control field of the delimiters contains information that assists with contention control. By monitoring the frame delimiters, the MAC/PHY can determine the state of the line or carrier. This is known as carrier sense. Channel Access The end-of-frame delimiter also carries data

regarding the priority of transmissions. To reduce collisions that occur with random access to the channel, Cogency uses a Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) protocol enhanced with priority signaling. Prioritized access to the channel is achieved by using the Priority Resolution Period (PRS0 and PRS1 as shown in Figure 8). During this period, all ready-to-transmit stations signal the priority at which they intend to transmit allowing only the highest priority transmissions to continue. A slotted binary exponential backoff mechanism used during the Contention State spreads the time over which the remaining stations attempt to transmit under busy conditions to reduce the probability of collisions.

Get Plugged In
Using the powerline network as a data transmission channel does present some technical challenges: multipath distortion effects, noise in the environment, RF interference, and privacy concerns are formidable obstacles. However, Cogencys HomePlug technology is able to manage these concerns with a robust solution that provides reliable data transmission for the home networking environment. The Cogency MAC/PHY adapts automatically to changing conditions on the power line providing a reliable channel under the noisiest conditions. OFDM technology manages multipath distortion effects. Privacy management using 56-bit encryption techniques provides privacy, while priority contention control ensures timely access for latency-sensitive applications. Powerline presents a reliable, low-cost solution for residential networking. Cogencys HomePlug technology provides Ethernet-class data networking to support VoIP, QoS, and streaming media applications. Powerline networking turns every AC outlet into a network port.

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