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Powerline Communication for M2M Applications
2.1 Overview of PLC Technologies
For decades, powerline communication technologies (PLC) have made it possible to use power lines to send and receive data. This “no-new-wire” approach makes PLC one of the best communication technology candidates for the Smart Grid, compared to other wired technologies. On the other hand, as PLC technologies use a media that was not specified for communication, they have faced a number of technical challenges limiting diffusion to niche indoor markets or dedicated ultralow rate applications.
More recently, the booming of modern modulation techniques in integrated silicon made it possible to improve both communication reliability and data rate. Combined with the versatility of emerging protocols such as 6LoWPAN (see the 6LoWPAN chapter), a much larger market is opening for PLC.
Instead of offering here a detailed description of the modulation techniques in use by different vendors/alliances, this can be found for example in [1], this section is more focused on the evolution and comparison of emerging technologies, in the context of the specific requirements of M2M communication.
2.2 PLC Landscape
This section presents an overview of existing powerline technologies and standards. It is not exhaustive and focuses on the most widespread technologies.
2.2.1 The Historical Period (1950–2000)
This first period was driven mainly by utilities for outdoor applications at very ...
