Multiple-domain cooperative diversity mechanism in G.hn networks

The existing in-house communication mediums have been identified as suitable for broadband data communication. To improve the network performance, different diversity techniques, such as spatial, frequency and time diversity, are available. To this end, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) schemes have been introduced in power line communication (PLC) systems. However, due to different physical characteristics of mediums, the implementation of spatial diversity at the physical layer across different domains in G.hn is a challenging task. In this paper, we present a diversity mechanism based on cross-layer classification for multiple-domain communications in G.hn networks, where the content is either kept within the same domain or distributed over different domains. The multiple-domain property is exploited to provide several copies of the received signal and improve the transmission performance. The mediums over which the signal copies are transmitted are chosen in a way to satisfy given quality of service (QoS) requirements. The performance of the diversity scheme is evaluated by computer simulation to illustrate the advantage of the proposed method.