Narrowband PLC SIMO-Based Interference Suppression With Zero-Forcing

A single-input multiple-output-based architecture is considered to support co-channel interference (CCI) suppression processing at the receiver, where narrowband (NB) outdoor power-line communications (PLC) in the 42-89 kHz frequency band are assumed. The phantom mode (PM) in a multiconductor power transmission cable is employed for transmission, and both the PM and the differential mode (DM) are used at the receiver. Transfer functions for the PM-PM and the PM-DM modes are modeled for short-range and long-range outdoor NB PLC topologies incorporating three-path propagation using a deterministic transmission-line modeling approach. An orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) waveform based on the PRIME standard is used for the desired and CCI signals. Interference suppression is achieved through a zero-forcing algorithm that leverages multichannel reception and requires channel state estimates for the interference signal. Stochastic network structures are further discussed to demonstrate the average interference suppression performance. Bit-error-rate performance is estimated in the presence of interference with and without zero-forcing suppression. Results indicate that the suppression algorithm leads to a more robust interference-tolerant receiver, particularly when the relative channel responses between modes for the desired signal and the interference signal are sufficiently different.