Suitable PHY layer of narrow-band power line carrier communication in emerging advanced metering infrastructure scenario

Under the Advanced Metering Infrastructure, millions of metering endpoints spread over the residential areas need a two way communication network to connect them with the head-end system (HES) through a data collector. The data collector has a high bandwidth gateway to the HES but the last mile network to connect the collector with the endpoints remains a challenge. Narrow band power line carrier communication (NB-PLC) and radio frequency (RF) are the technologies which have been used for the purpose of realizing this. NB-PLC could have been the most cost effective technology for AMI but for its main limitations of low throughput and vulnerability to noise. With the advent of technology, an opportunity has emerged to improve upon these limitations by the new modulation techniques offered by orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). This paper attempts to gauge the feasibility of OFDM in a typically noisy low tension (LT) power line scenario implemented on a test bed in a building. Findings of this paper would particularly be useful for AMI deployment in those scenarios where either RF is not a viable option or for the emerging RF-PLC hybrid network proposition to achieve enhanced coverage and reliability.