Communications on the power line

The motor industry has seen some major advances in electronic control systems. There has been an equally large proliferation of convenience and multi-media features in even the most basic levels of car. In the high-end luxury market OEMs consistently offer a whole host of new convenience and advanced control features. As a result the number of connectors and cables has risen dramatically. The projected state is that the high feature content car will not have enough space to contain this much wiring and connectors. In the near future dual voltage 14 V/42 V and eventually 42 V distribution systems will be the standard in automobiles. These developments will go some way to address the issues of higher power requirements and emissions legislation. The wiring system is still fairly restricted in terms of size and weight reduction, manufacturability and reliability can not be overcome by simply reducing the cross sectional area of the cables. The answer to these problems is to reduce the number of cables, where possible, and reduce the power loss. Of particular interest is the use of power cables as the transmission medium of digital control signals. This paper describes the reasons behind and outlines the need for such a system