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Power Line Communication (PLC) Evolution: New Challenges and Innovative Solutions

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A1: Smart Grids and Microgrids".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (22 February 2021) | Viewed by 10696

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
ICAI, ETSI, Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Madrid, Spain
Interests: power line communications; wireless communications; smart grids

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Guest Editor
Institute of Networked and Embedded Systems, Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt, Austria
Interests: power line communications; wireless communications; smart grids

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Power line communication (PLC) is a technology that can intelligently and efficiently exploit existing power distribution networks. PLC has been evolving, absorbing innovations from other telecommunication and energy technology developments, and today it plays a fundamental role, providing reliable and affordable connectivity. From narrowband to broadband, and from grid-related applications to entertainment services, PLC has a great importance for a relevant number of stakeholders across the industry.

PLC offers several advantages over other technologies, being both a complement and a competitor to some of them. Among the evident advantages, there is the need for no new wiring, coverage where wireless communications cannot be effectively deployed, readiness to be integrated in grid connected devices, etc.

In the era of IoT, 5G communications, and the electrification of systems, PLC is again pushed to evolve to adapt to the new needs, so that it continues to be a reference technology in relevant application domains and open new potential markets. For this PLC evolution, it is especially important to consider the advent of new requirements, the adaptation to already-known constraints, and the capability to form hybrid architectures when combined with other technologies.

Within this context, this Special Issue aims at collecting original paper contributions related to the understanding of how PLC is adapting to the new landscape, the identification of the challenges, and the description of both up-to-date developed solutions and new ones that can stem from longer-term research efforts.

The topics of interest include but are not limited to:

Analysis of new PLC challenges;

Advances in PLC technologies (PHY, MAC and upper networking layers);

Hybrid architectures with PLC networks (radio, visible light, etc.);

Software defined PLC networks and virtualization;

PLC for smart grids, smart metering, and grid control;

PLC applications in non-grid-related environments (in-vehicle, in-home, industrial, IoT, etc.);

PLC experimental and deployment results.

Dr. Alberto Sendin
Dr. Andrea M. Tonello
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • power line communications
  • smart grid communications
  • smart metering
  • home networks
  • in-vehicle networks
  • industrial networks
  • PHY algorithms
  • MAC protocols

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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21 pages, 5285 KiB  
Article
Sensitivity-Informed Bayesian Inference for Home PLC Network Models with Unknown Parameters
by David S. Ching, Cosmin Safta and Thomas A. Reichardt
Energies 2021, 14(9), 2402; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14092402 - 23 Apr 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2373
Abstract
Bayesian inference is used to calibrate a bottom-up home PLC network model with unknown loads and wires at frequencies up to 30 MHz. A network topology with over 50 parameters is calibrated using global sensitivity analysis and transitional Markov Chain Monte Carlo (TMCMC). [...] Read more.
Bayesian inference is used to calibrate a bottom-up home PLC network model with unknown loads and wires at frequencies up to 30 MHz. A network topology with over 50 parameters is calibrated using global sensitivity analysis and transitional Markov Chain Monte Carlo (TMCMC). The sensitivity-informed Bayesian inference computes Sobol indices for each network parameter and applies TMCMC to calibrate the most sensitive parameters for a given network topology. A greedy random search with TMCMC is used to refine the discrete random variables of the network. This results in a model that can accurately compute the transfer function despite noisy training data and a high dimensional parameter space. The model is able to infer some parameters of the network used to produce the training data, and accurately computes the transfer function under extrapolative scenarios. Full article
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26 pages, 42017 KiB  
Article
Power Line Communications for Automotive High Voltage Battery Systems: Channel Modeling and Coexistence Study with Battery Monitoring
by Thomas F. Landinger, Guenter Schwarzberger, Guenter Hofer, Matthias Rose and Andreas Jossen
Energies 2021, 14(7), 1851; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14071851 - 26 Mar 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4069
Abstract
As electric vehicles are gaining increasing worldwide interest, advances in driving range and safety become critical. Modern automotive battery management systems (BMS) compete with challenging performance and safety requirements and need to monitor a large amount of battery parameters. In this paper, we [...] Read more.
As electric vehicles are gaining increasing worldwide interest, advances in driving range and safety become critical. Modern automotive battery management systems (BMS) compete with challenging performance and safety requirements and need to monitor a large amount of battery parameters. In this paper, we propose power line communications (PLC) for high voltage (HV) traction batteries to reduce the BMS wiring effort. By modeling a small-scale battery pack for frequencies up to 300 MHz, we predict the PLC channel transfer characteristics and validate the results using a PLC hardware demonstrator employing a narrowband single-carrier modulation. The results demonstrate that battery PLC is a demanding task due to low access impedances and cell coupling effects, yet transfer characteristics can be improved by optimal impedance matching. PLC for HV BMS not only saves weight and cost, but also improves flexibility in BMS design. PLC enables single-cell monitoring techniques such as online electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) without additional wiring. Online EIS can be used for in-situ state and temperature estimation saving extra sensors. This work unveils possible coexistence issues between PLC and battery monitoring. In particular, we demonstrate that certain PLC data or packet rates have to be avoided not to interfere with EIS measurements. Full article
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Review

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18 pages, 4745 KiB  
Review
Standardization Challenges, Opportunities and Recent Evolutions for the G3-PLC Technology
by Cédric Lavenu, Cédric Chauvenet, Paolo Treffiletti, Matteo Varesio and Klaus Hueske
Energies 2021, 14(7), 1937; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14071937 - 31 Mar 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2759
Abstract
Considering the intrinsic benefits of power line communications, the long-lasting lifetime of industrial systems and the growth of IoT, PLC technologies will be part of the worldwide industrial landscape for many decades. This paper discusses the history of the G3-PLC technology and current [...] Read more.
Considering the intrinsic benefits of power line communications, the long-lasting lifetime of industrial systems and the growth of IoT, PLC technologies will be part of the worldwide industrial landscape for many decades. This paper discusses the history of the G3-PLC technology and current challenges and opportunities identified in real systems. Finally, it introduces recent evolutions within the G3-PLC standard, which bring additional performance and versatility, enhancing the relevance of G3-PLC as a complementary technology to other telecommunication systems in a 5G-driven telecommunication technology landscape. Full article
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