Study of relay deployment in home area network based on power line communications

Power line communication (PLC) is an attractive solution to facilitate the home area network (HAN). According to the indoor power line norm in China, an approximation of channel capacity is proposed based on the bottom-up channel model, which is helpful evaluating the transmission capacity by using the information of transmission distance and number of branches. The decode-and-forward relay scheme is employed, and boundary condition indicates the number of relays needed under different scenarios is studied based on the approximation equation of channel capacity. Finally, the optimal position of relay in the power network condition of all branches uniformly and nonuniform distributed are analyzed respectively.