Cooperative communication for broadband PLC and PLC/wireless systems: achievable data rate analyses

Abstract

This dissertation aims to discuss hybrid and non-hybrid cooperative communications applied to in-home broadband data communication systems. In this sense, the two-stage single-relay channel model is investigated for in-home broadband power line communication systems. This cooperative channel model consists of the concatenation of two single-relay channels, covering data communication links with up to two hops. Moreover, a hybrid power line/wireless single-relay channel model is analyzed for broadband data communication systems, considering one-hop links. Ergodic achievable data rate expressions are derived for both hybrid and non-hybrid cooperative channel models in order to compare them. Due to channel and noise characteristics of electric power grids, numerical results are based on a data set constituted by power line channel estimates and additive noise measurements covering the frequency band from 1.7 up to 100 MHz and different relay positions. For wireless channels, the HIPERLAN/2 model with the same bandwidth is used, but at a central frequency of 5 GHz, while the additive noise is considered to be Gaussian white. Regarding only power line communication systems, it is shown that the two-stage single-relay channel model is the best option when the source-to-destination link is severely degraded (e.g., high signal attenuation due to the long distance between source and destination nodes and/or high-power noise presence). When the channel degradation is not severe, the two-hop channel model is more appropriate. Concerning hybrid systems, it is observed that, when the relay is halfway between source and destination nodes, the hybrid single-relay channel model presents the best performance in terms of ergodic achievable data rate, while the hybrid one-hop channel model yields the best results for other cases.