Data Communication and Network Routing: BPL Technology Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) technology. It begins with an introduction to BPL, explaining its function in transmitting internet and broadband through existing power lines, and the motivation behind its development. The report delves into the working principle of BPL, detailing the use of Power Line Communication (PLC) technology and the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) modulation technique. It further discusses BPL architecture, forward error code correction methods, and international standardization efforts. The advantages of BPL, such as low installation costs and wide broadband penetration, are highlighted, alongside its drawbacks, including signal attenuation and compatibility issues. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and implications of BPL technology.

Running head: BROADBAND OVER POWER LINES
BROADBAND OVER POWER LINES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction..........................................................................................................................2
2.0 Working Principle of BPL...................................................................................................2
2.1 The Power Line Communication (PLC) Technology......................................................3
2.2 Reason for OFDM Modulation........................................................................................4
2.3 BPL Architecture.............................................................................................................5
3.0 Forward Error Code Correction...........................................................................................5
4.0 International Standardization...............................................................................................6
5.0 Advantages of BPL..............................................................................................................7
6.0 Drawbacks and Issues of BPL..............................................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References:...............................................................................................................................11

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1.0 Introduction
The Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) is a technology which allows the
transmission of internet and broadband through existing power lines. It allows relatively high
speed digital data transmission through the electric power distribution line (Held 2016). With
the broadband over power line anyone can plug their PC and other internet based devices and
get access to the internet instantly. BPL uses very high low band frequencies, medium waves
and operate at a speed similar to that of digital subscriber line (DSL) (Dash and Panda 2016).
Despite of the rapid increase in the use of broadband technology, there are still huge part of
the world do not have access to the use of high speed internet. While serving internet to the
small number of users would be a great initiative but the cost of laying cables and
constructing the necessary infrastructure in rural areas is also expensive. However, if the
broadband would be served through the power lines then no additional infrastructure is
required to be build, which would save a large expense (Lazaropoulos 2018). The internet
could be served anywhere with electricity power lines. The broadband connective can be
implemented by marginally adjusting the current power grid with specialized components by
superimposing the high frequency internet bandwidth with respect to the frequency of the
electric signal because the broadband signal traverse at a high frequency. This report
discusses about the working principle of BPL along with the power line communication and
the modulation technique used in BPL. In addition to that the error code correction,
international standardization, advantages and disadvantages of the BPL discussed properly.
2.0 Working Principle of BPL
The Broadband over power lines uses the power line communication technology to
access the internet broadband connection over ordinary power lines (Gankov 2018). A

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computer or any other devices would need to plug to a BPL modem connected with the
electrical outlet equipped in a building.
The internet signals are released at the medium voltage power line using a device
called head end with the help of fiber cables. After successfully dropping the data over the
power lines it cannot travels far distant to the end user as the signal attenuates. To avoid
attenuation of the signal of the signal, a repeaters are installed at the power lines to avoid the
attenuation of the signal and enables a smooth transmission of the signal. Finally by plugging
in the devices into the BPL modem the users can get access over the internet.
2.1 The Power Line Communication (PLC) Technology
The BPL system functions by combining the radio frequency with the existing
electrical medium voltage power lines. In order to deliver a quality communication at high
speed data rate to the customers, a high density modulation technique is used called
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). To ensure high speed data
transmission the upload and download speeds are as per the requirements of the customers
accordingly and with configurable data transmission (Doshi 2016). The system has the
capacity to work in the frequency range of 10-30 MHz, hence the distortion can be avoided in
the signal quality. The signal strength is kept more than 30dB throughout the network by
optimizing the usage of the repeaters throughout the network.
The OFDM bundles data and transmits in parallel at different frequencies over the
narrowband carriers. The 1536 sub carriers by it which is highest with compare to any other
technology used in the wired communication at each possible mode of operation between 10-
30MHz (Marey and Dobre 2016). In this technology an approx. of 2 to 10 bits per sub
carriers is added for the communication. Even in the phase of interference, this technology
ensures the highest quality of communication. To obtain high reliability and maximum

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performance this technology is achieved by adjusting the number of bits on real time basis for
each and every carrier. The number of bit adapted depends upon the condition of the received
signal and transmission medium. PLC delivers up to 200 Mbps throughout the data
transmission.
OFDM technique is mainly used in PLC because of the immunity of OFDM toward
the interferences of unwanted signals which is a major issue natural encounter while
transmitting data over power lines (Corcoran, Foo, and Lowery 2018). PLC results in the
highest level of performance and spectral efficiency with respect to any wire line
communication technology because of the implementation of OFDM.
2.2 Reason for OFDM Modulation
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a frequency modulation
scheme which is utilized as a digital multi carrier modulation method. A large number of
closely spaced orthogonal sub carriers are used to carry data (Yeh et al. 2015). The data is
further divided into several data channels specifically one for each sub carrier. After dividing
the data each sub carriers is then modulated with a conventional modulation schemes within
the same range of bandwidth.
The orthogonally of the sub carriers in OFDM eliminates the serious issues of
interference and cross talk between sub channels which is a distinct advantage over
conventional modulation schemes (Li et al. 2018). It has the ability to deal with the
attenuation of high frequencies, frequency selective fading and narrow band interference
which has developed the added significance in broadband internet access. The overriding
feature of OFDM helps in simplification of channel equalization as the technique slowly
modulates the narrow band signals and modulates the wide band signals rapidly.

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2.3 BPL Architecture
The architecture shows how the data is transferred via the power line (Wong,
Watanabe and Grebennikov 2018). In figure 1.0 various network components can be
identified between broadband OFC media to user work station.
Figure 1.0: General architecture of BPL
3.0 Forward Error Code Correction
i) Random and burst error: In memory less channel random errors occurs very
repeatedly and commonly. The occurrence of single randomly bit errors are independent of
bit to bit error. Burst errors are associated with memory channels where the noise is depended
over the one transmitted symbol to other (Roca and Begen 2018). Hence, the errors occurs in
clusters. The coding scheme for controlling the errors with random error correction capacity
cannot improve the performance of channels alone (Gao 2018). Future broadband PLC can
possibly implemented only via low transmitted power density, due to strict emission

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principles for electromagnetic compatibility. BCH or RS codes has been found as a great
application to combat the impulse or burst noise effect in burst error for a specific time
duration. The impulse effect which stays on line can be examined and the appropriate
schemes error correction can be applied.
ii) Interleaving and concatenation: The transmission error implies a strong
correlation among time/frequency. Interleaving eliminates or reduces local fading by
enabling the decoder through the bang by breaking the time correlation (Ricciutelli, Baldi and
Chiaraluce 2018). The depth of the interleaving should be large enough to break long straight
errors. Concatenation is another way of improving the error correcting capacity of a system.
4.0 International Standardization
Interoperability is a characteristic of a product or system which ensures the products
from different vendors in the marketplace creates a healthy competition, accelerates the
technical innovation and ensures the best price for the customers which is one of the crucial
issue challenging the power line industries (Varma and Jaffery 2019). Unfortunately, the
PHY/MAC standards results as incompatible, which led to the establishment of numerous
industrial coalitions.
However, in a comprehensive manner the issues of interoperability needed different
approaches and sevral companies pursuing to made an effort to create a unified G.hn standard
inside ITU-T which would bring three key advantages:
i) Unifying the industries associated with power line distribution and resolving the problems
of interoperability.
ii) Create a single market by unifying the coaxial networking industries, phone line and
power line industries.

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iii) Should considered as a next generation standard which would bring higher level of
performance than that of present available standards.
On 12th December 2008 IUT-T announced the adoption of draft G.hn standard
(officially called as G.9960) for networking over phone lines as the international standard,
power lines and co-axial cable. The single PHY/MA architecture of ITU-T G.hn ensures the
fully interoperability of the multi vendors (Slacik, Mlynek and Fujdiak 2018). However, this
standard can also be operated over multiple wires like phone line, coaxial cables and power
lines which makes the G.hn as the acceptable and dominant for the industries associated with
home networking.
5.0 Advantages of BPL
With very little investment over the equipment the wide, extensive and spread
infrastructure which is already exists in terms of electrical cables in the remote areas can be
utilized to allow easy access of internet. It is advantageous particularly over the areas where
the limitations experienced by the service providers in terms of laying cable or having a DSL
connection (Lazaropoulos 2018). BPL system have also been recognized in terms of
improving the reliability and quality delivering the electric power by creating more intelligent
power grid. BPL technology allows the more effective way to manage power and utilities,
monitoring and metering based on automation is performed over the existing power grid in
order to avoid potential failures. The effective advantages of BPL are as follows:
i) Low installation cost
ii) Extremely low maintenance cost
iii) Large scale broadband penetration

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iv) Installation time is less than 45 minutes
v) Additional infrastructure is not required
vi) Long range connectivity
vii) Robust and reliable broadband connection
viii) Relatively provides high speed broadband over telephone lines and cables
ix) Eliminates the issues digital divide in rural areas
6.0 Drawbacks and Issues of BPL
The virtual absence of international standard and enormous variation in the physical
characteristics of the electrical network makes the provisioning of services far from being
repeatable and standard process. However, it is in question that what amount bandwidth
exactly a BPL network can deliver with respect to the wired and wireless network (Lopes,
Planells and Verl 2018). The major issues raised in the BPL because of the inherent noise in
the power lines due to the carrier of high energy in the system. Every time it introduces a
click into the line while an electrical device is turned off or on. This introduces quite noisy
harmonics into the line hence which becomes quite predominant for the energy saving
devices. Thus the system should be designed in such a manner which has the ability to deal
with the disruption caused by the natural signals.
The signal strength and operating frequency is another major issue. The system is
expected to use a frequency range from 10 to 30 MHz. The short wave radio frequencies may
interfere over the operating frequencies of BPL as the unshielded power lines act as an
antenna for the signals which it carries (Shekoni, Hasan and Shongwe 2018). The
interference becomes quite observable when the antennas are physically near to the power

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lines. The interference significantly reduces and barely observable where the antennas are
temperately separated from the power network.
However, the deployment of the BPL system is still not clear enough that it will not
cause other problems like:
i) Signal attenuation
ii) Compatibility issues may arises in the radio spectrum for the existing as well as new users
iii) Issues associated with RFI for other user of the spectrum
iv) Coordination among Telecom and Power service providers
v) Signal boosting and repeater design
vi) BPL uses only low and medium voltage power cables
vii) Low voltage transformer acts as a low-pass filter, which restricts the higher frequencies
but allows the electric signal with low losses at low frequencies.
viii) Security issues in adoption of Internet services
ix) Signals needs amplifier to avoid attenuation and make them travel longer distances.
Transformers, surge protectors, and circuit breakers can affect the broadband signals
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded from this report that in the rural areas where the
broadband penetration is extremely low and the costs of laying the copper cables or short
haul satellite for providing the broadband for the communication is very expensive. Hence,
providing the broadband over power lines holds a great promise for eliminating the issues
like digital divide in rural areas. In UK the major issue of interference still remain

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unidentified because of the lack of strict governing measures. The agencies which are
vulnerable of BPL made a strong protest against its implementation, but even in the absence
of these regulatory measures then also BPL is gaining ground in the communication
technoogy. The serious economic limitations exists as a heavy investment to be made in
terms of laying copper wires and installation of satellite as a final broadband transmission
would be worthwhile by giving serious consideration and importance to BPL. BPL provides a
lesser installation time and low maintenance costs results in increasing the penetration in the
broadband technology which makes BPL a worth technology. BPL potentially holds the
backhaul for the wireless communication for instances by hanging the base stations of cell
phones or the Wi-Fi access points on poles. Hence, it allows the end users to connect with the
readily available equipment within a certain range.
The BPL use OFDM modulation technique because it use single data streaming which
splits across several narrowband channels at different frequencies to reduce interference and
cross talks. It is a technology which helps in transmitting large amount of digital data over the
radio wave by superimposing it. However, the implementation of BPL possesses several
drawbacks in terms of signal attenuation and repeated signal boosting at every stage and issue
related to security.
In short it can be said BPL provides an extra layer of advancement in the
technological capabilities to driven and eliminates the issues of digital divide in rural areas.

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Gankov, S., 2018. Clock Synchronization Methods for Distributed Systems and Their
Feasibility in a Powerline Communications Medium (Doctoral dissertation, The University of
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