A novel statistical approach of path loss mapping for indoor broadband power line communications

Power line communication (PLC) is one of the promising technologies for indoor communication networks. However, there lack general path loss model and coverage distance investigation for indoor broadband PLC (BPLC), due to large variances in the measurement environments and test beds used in the previous work. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for mapping the path loss of indoor BPLC, based on statistical modeling of the topology for each of the nine channel classes defined in [1]. Our approach is further proved through measurements. We propose a novel methodology for measurements based upon calculating the path loss of the PLC channel versus the electrical distance between outlets instead of the geometrical one. We also propose a simplification method for computing the channel transfer function, which is proved to be more general and computationally more efficient than the previous method in literature. The generated path loss of PLC is compared to that of the wireless communication within the VHF band. The feasibility of the cooperation between PLC and wireless communications is concluded.