Nowadays, Power Line Communication (PLC) is gaining high attention from industry and electric supply companies for the services like demand response, demand side management and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). The reliable services to consumers...
Nowadays, Power Line Communication (PLC) is gaining high attention from industry and electric supply companies for the services like demand response, demand side management and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). The reliable services to consumers using PLC can be provided by utilizing an efficient PLC channel for which sophisticated channel modeling is very important. This paper presents characterization of a Low Voltage (LV) access network for Narrowband Power Line Communications (NB-PLC) using transmission line (TL) theory and a Simulink model. The TL theory analysis not only includes the constant parameters but frequency selectivity is also introduced in these parameters such as resistance, conductance and impedances. However, the proposed Simulink channel model offers an analysis and characterization of capacitive coupler, network impedance and channel transfer function for NB-PLC. Analysis of analytical and simulated results shows a close agreement of the channel transfer function. In the absence of a standardized NBPLC channel model, this research work can prove significant in improving the efficiency and accuracy of NB-PLC communication transceivers for Smart Grid communications.