Low-voltage power line communications for DC power distribution network

Abstract

The transformation to smart grid calls for high speed bidirectional communication

technologies to establish the reliable communication architecture. As a potential

candidate , power line communication (PLC) shows promising advantages of saving

cost by eliminating the need for additional serial-communication wiring.

The object of this project is to build a communication system with an

implementation of Narrow band Power line communication (NB-PLC) technology

working on CENELEC -A band. To achieve a desirable performance, OFDM

(Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) system with PRIME specification is

adopted to overcome the technical issues over power line channel. Unlike most of the

researches focusing on AC power line, the interest of the project is focused on 24 V DC

bus. It is an embedded system co-designed with hardware and firmware which realizes

the two-way point-to-point communication. Particularly, the problem of multiple nodes

networking is considered during the hardware design.

Key words: Narrow-band PLC, DC power supply, OFDM, Coupling circuit