Clustered-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing for power line communication: when is it beneficial?

This study presents a comprehensive analysis to highlight advantages and disadvantages, in terms of channel capacity and computational complexity (CC), of a so-called clustered-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme for power line communication (PLC) technologies for access networks. By taking into account filtering, decimation and upsampling techniques, the implementations of two transmitter schemes, named P(·)-I and P(·)-II, and three receivers ones, named Q(·)-I, Q(·)-II and Q(·)-III, that can be easily derived from the hermitian symmetric OFDM (HS-OFDM) scheme are discussed. Numerical results show that the clustered-OFDM schemes based on HS-OFDM provide the same bit-error-rate performance as that of HS-OFDM, double sideband-OFDM and single sideband-OFDM. Also, clustered-OFDM based on the combination of Q(·)-II and Q(·)-III offers the lowest CC for both baseband and passband data communications. Further, it is demonstrated that the clustered-OFDM schemes can trade off channel capacity for CC, which can give rise to low-priced transceivers for PLC technologies. Finally, a comparative analysis of clustered-OFDM and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) points out the scenarios in which clustered-OFDM can be competitive if the complexity of the OFDM transceiver is a primary consideration.