Characteristics of Low Voltage Distribution Networks in the European and FCC united Band and its Channel Capacity

Communication over the low-voltage distribution networks is of great importance to the electrical engineering and networks engineering. The signal transmission characteristics and noise distributions over the distribution networks are the key factors to be considered in designing communication systems. In the past years, most previous works are concentrated on the European standard band (3~148.5kHz). In China, the legal frequency band for power line communications is 3~500kHz, covering the European band and the FCC band (100~450kHz). In this paper, the characteristics of signal transmission over 220V distribution networks and the characteristics of noise in the frequency range of 3~500kHz are investigated in detail. The work includes following parts. Firstly, the measurement procedure of transmission characteristics based on the S-parameters is discussed. Secondly, the measured results of transmission characteristics are described and modeled. Thirdly, the characteristics of noise are discussed and modeled. Fourthly, based on the measurements, the channel capacity is calculated using the water-filling method, and the result shows that the low-voltage distribution channel in the frequency range of 3~500kHz has the potentials to provide high transmission rate service for the subscribers of data communication.