Research on Power Line as Communication Channel with Multi-Tap and Multi-Branch Configuration

To study the effect of different branch configuration on transmission characteristic in-home lowvoltage (LV) communication power line communication (PLC) channel, the influences of branch length, number of branch and tap, and branch terminal impedance on the performance of PLC are investigated. The two type power line network structures of the one-tap with multi-branch (OTMB) and the multi-tap with multi-branch (MTMB) are studied. The transmission characteristics of the PLC channel are simulated by varying the length and terminal impedance of the branch for two configurations. Simulation results show that the length and terminal impedance of the branch have significant influence on the amplitude and phase response of the transfer function. The position and number of notches and crests in the amplitude responses are affected by different branch types and the configurations of branch length and branch terminal impedance. The models developed in this paper can easily handle an arbitrary topology of power line channel and provide accurate calculation for the channel responses of the all kinds of channel branch structures in indoor LV power line network.