Coherence Bandwidth and its Relationship with the RMS delay spread for PLC channels using Measurements up to 100 MHz

Estimations of coherence bandwidth from wideband channel sounding measurements made in the 30KHz–100MHz band in several indoor environments are described. Results are intended for applications in high-capacity indoor powerline networks. The coherence bandwidth and the RMS delay spread parameters are estimated from measurements of the complex transfer function of the Powerline Communications (PLC) channel. The 90th percentile of the estimated coherence bandwidth at 0.9 correlation level is above 65.5 KHz and 90% of estimated values of B0.9 are below 691.5 KHz. B0.9 was observed to have a minimum value of 32.5 KHz. The RMS delay spread describes the dispersion in the time domain due to multipath transmission. 80 % of the channels exhibit an RMS delay spread between 0.06μs and 0.78μs. Its mean value was equal to 0.413μs. The paper studies the variability of the coherence bandwidth and time-delay spread parameters with the channel class [9], and thus with the location of the receiver with respect to the transmitter. And finally relates the RMS delay spread to the coherence bandwidth, which in turn, affects the powerline channel capacity. Keywords— Powerline Communications (PLC), Coherence bandwidth, RMS delay spread.