Adaptive power loading for OFDM-based power line communications impaired by impulsive noise

Adaptive modulation can improve the performance of OFDM systems significantly. In Power Line Communication systems, impulsive noise has to be considered due to its severe effect in the system performance. This paper deals with the effect of impulsive noise in adaptive power loading in OFDM-based PLC systems. We present a simple power loading algorithm with uniform bit allocation and nonuniform BER distribution and test it by means of computer simulations in a widely-accepted power line channel model impaired with impulsive noise. Closed form expressions for BER and power allocation in the presence of impulsive noise are presented. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve a considerable improvement over conventional OFDM with uniform power allocation.