Simulation of High Frequency Signal Transmission on Power Lines

S. Barmada, M. Raugi
Dipartimento Sistemi Elettrici e Automazione
Università di Pisa,
Via Diotisalvi 2, 56126 Pisa, Italy
sami.barmada@dsea.unipi.it - +39 050 2217312

The main characteristic of the method is its accuracy and

Abstract – This works present a channel model for high low CPU time and memory consumption and it is based on
frequency signal propagation in power lines, to be used for the the wavelet expansion of the unknown quantities [4], [5].
study of the transmission in Poweline Carrier Systems. The
model is characterized by taking into account frequency II. MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF THE CHANNEL
dependence of the line and the presence of noise. A method to
include the effect of load variation in the channel is also
introduced. The well known transmission lines equations in the time
domain are the following:
Keywords – Power Lines, Frequency Dependent Parameters,
∂ ∂
Channel Modelling. v ( z, t ) = − ri ( z, t ) − l i ( z , t )
∂z ∂t
(1)
I. INTRODUCTION ∂ ∂
i ( z , t ) = − gv ( z , t ) − c v( z, t )
∂z ∂t
Signal transmission through Powerline Carrier (PLC) is where r, l, c and g are the transmission line per unit length
nowadays gaining more and more interest for applications parameters.
like Internet, data services, voice transmission. The main Due to the importance of the evaluation of external
reason of this renewed interest is that PLC can count on disturbances, also the effect of an external field excitation
existing electrical connections reaching each single user, in needs to be taken into account, and this can be obtained by
the locations where such applications are required, for the inclusion of distributed voltage and current sources [1],
example office and home. The modelling of the PLC channel [6], [7] as follows
is hence of fundamental importance, since the quality of the ∂ ∂
transmission is highly influenced by the characteristic of the v ( z , t ) = − ri ( z , t ) − l i ( z , t ) + e ( z , t )
channel. In this work we focus on the modelling of the power ∂z ∂t
(2)
∂ ∂
line channel, taking into account non ideal effects and i ( z , t ) = − gv( z , t ) − c v ( z , t ) + j ( z, t )
coupling with noise. ∂z ∂t
There are several techniques available in the literature for where e( z, t ) and j ( z, t ) are respectively distributed voltage
the transmission lines modelling [1], and some authors have
and current sources which can be calculated (for a generic
focused their attention to aspects strictly related to PLC
multiconductor line) analytically as follows [7]:
communication [2]. We propose a frequency domain model, y1i
characterized by taking into account the frequency variation ∂
e ( z, t ) = ∫ B ( y, z, t ) dy
i
x (3)
of the line parameters by the inclusion of external noise and ∂t y 0i
load variations. y1i y1i
∂
Software tools for the simulation of PLC systems are j ( z, t ) = −G ∫ E iy ( y , z, t ) dy − C ∫ E ( y, z, t ) dy
i
y (4)
nowadays available, and they often represent the transfer y 0i
∂t y 0i
channel by an attenuation factor [3]; by the use of the once the geometry of the line and the orientation of the
proposed method it is possible to evaluate, with a low CPU impinging field are known, as represented in Fig. 1
time consumption, the attenuation of a signal when the The transmission of high frequency signals can cause of
transmission line parameters are know. variation of the line parameters, mainly due to the presence of
Furthermore a technique for the evaluation of the signal the skin effect phenomena.
transmission bounds in case of a casual variation of any load Furthermore we need to take into account the presence of
is proposed. The latter is a fundamental feature of the noise that can negatively affect the transmission of the
proposed technique: PLC transmission is affected by desired signals, and the easiest way to characterize noise is in
topology variations of the network caused by sudden load the frequency domain.
changes which in many cases cannot be forecasted; the
proposed technique evaluates the effect of the load changes at
any single node by calculating the upper and lower bounds of
the signal transmission.

0-7803-8844-5/05/$20.00 c 2005 IEEE. 138


Fig. 1 Geometry of a transmission line with external field
excitation.
Hence the proposed model will be formulated in
frequency domain, and equation (2) is transformed into
∂ Z L the generic source and load impedance) the following
v ( z ) = − z (ω ) i ( z ) + e ( z )
∂z
∂
i ( z ) = − y (ω ) v ( z ) + j ( z )
∂z
where the phasor notation has been introduced, and the
unit impedance and admittance are
z (ω ) = r (ω ) + jωl (ω )
y (ω ) = g (ω ) + jωc (ω )
which can be used in case the variation of the p.u.l.
parameters with the frequency is known.
On the other hand, in case the variation with frequency is
not known apriori by measurements, the model proposed in
[1] can be used, hence eq. (6) can be substituted by the
following
z (ω ) = rdc + k jω + jωl (8)
where the term k jω takes into account the behaviour of the
high frequency internal impedance of the conductors.
Eq. (5) needs to be integrated in time, and several methods
are available [1]. We have chosen to apply to the spatial
behaviour of voltage and current the Wavelet Expansion [5];
in this way eq. (5) is transformed into an algebraic system
characterized by a sparse matrix (hence computational time
reduction) leading to an easy and low cost solution.
It is given a wavelet basis b ( z ) = b1 ( z ) ,… , bn ( z ) , and
eq. (5) are integrated in space between 0 and z and between z
and L (with L being the length of the line). Eq. (9) shows the
first integration.
z z
v ( z ) − v ( 0 ) = − z (ω ) ∫ i (ζ ) d ζ + ∫ e ( ζ ) d ζ
0 0
z z
i ( z ) − i ( 0 ) = − y (ω ) ∫ v (ζ ) d ζ + ∫ j ( ζ ) d ζ
0 0
By expanding equations (9) (and the ones with the
integrations performed between z and L) in the wavelet
domain two algebraic systems are obtained, and the first one
is shown below:
v − v 0 = − z (ω ) Tz i + Tz e
(10)
i − i 0 = − y (ω ) Tz v + Tz j
where the bold quantities v , i , e , j are the vectors of
coefficients of voltage, current and distributed source, and the
matrix Tz is the matrix representing the integral operator in
the wavelet domain.
Combining the two systems so obtained together with the
conditions at the terminals
v0 + Z s i0 = E
(11)
v L = Z Li L
the (with E being the phasor of the transmitted signal and Z s ,
final algebraic system is obtained:
(5) I d + Z s y (ω ) Tz z (ω ) Tz + Z s I d v Tz e + Z s Tz j + E
= (12)
− I d − Z L y (ω ) TzT z (ω ) TzT + Z L I d i TzT e − Z LTzT j
per The algebraic system (12) can be solved for each frequency
and gives the spatial behaviour of voltage and current. The
(6) input quantities are the phasor of the input signal and the
distributed voltage and current sources, coming from external
(7)
field excitation.
The resulting voltage and currents in the wavelet domain
are inverse transformed by the use of fast algorithm giving
the desired quantities in the frequency (or time, if needed)
domain.
The presence of the distributed sources allow us to take
into account the presence of external noise by simply
introducing a constant distributed source for each frequency
of the noise under analysis. This is very simple and useful
from a practical point of view, since external noise is often
characterized by a spectrogram [8]: in this way its inclusion
in the simulation of the transmission efficiency is
straightforward.
The main advantage in using the Wavelet Expansion in the
space domain is that the spatial characteristics of the lines
(which could be also nonuniform) and the spatial distribution
of the noise sources do not introduce any mathematical
difficulty, since integrations along the conductors are simply
taken into account by a matrix – vector multiplication.
III. NUMERICAL TEST CASE
To show how the proposed model can be used, we have
(9) considered a cable with the following parameters
c = 0.151nF / m , g = 0.1µ S / m ,
l = 0.4 µ H / m , r = 0.05Ω / m , L = 10m
whose frequency dependence is given in table 1.
The input signal is a 60 Hz voltage with a superposition of
a typical PLC signal implemented with an X10 protocol.
During the analysis, different noise sources have been
139
considered: white background noise, radio emitted noise, transmission lines with parallel loads connected to each sub
motor disturbances and impulsive disturbances. port, as reported in figure 5.
Characterization of the impulsive and radio emitted noise are
shown in figures 2 and 3.

MHz c(nF/m) G(mS/m) L(µH/m) R(Ω/m)

0,1 0,151 0,0001 0,40 0,05
0,5 0,151 0,001 0,40 0,05
1 0,151 0,003 0,42 0.10
2 0,152 0,004 0,42 0,10
3 0,152 0,005 0,42 0.10
4 0,153 0,005 0,42 0,20
5 0,154 0,006 0,42 0,20
7 0,158 0,008 0,43 0,20
10 0,168 0,043 0,44 0,20
Table 1. Frequency variation of the selected line

Fig. 3. Impulsive Disturbance

Fig. 2 Spectra of Radio Emitted Disturbance

The result of the simulation is filtered in order to visualize

the spikes characteristics of the X10 protocol transmission,
and in figure 4 is shown the positive part o the filtered signal. Fig. 4 Result of the simulation
Fig. 4 shows that for the particular cable and with the
imposed level of noise it is possible to locate the
characteristic pulses and the decodification algorithm for the
X10 protocol gives the correct sequence.
By performing several tests on different cables with
different noise levels it has been possible to correctly
evaluate the transmission quality of the PLC channel, and
determine important parameters as the attenuation, the Fig. 5 Topology of a local PLC channel
sensitivity to noise, the maximum transmission distance etc.
The proposed technique is hence of great importance in the Each load Yi (represented by its admittance) is of course
analysis and during the design and synthesis of a PLC
subject to random variation (i.e. insertion or disconnection of
system.
loads), being Yi = 0 the lower limit for each admittance (no
IV. VARIATION OF LOADS IN A PLC CHANNEL load connected). It is hence fundamental for the analysis of a
PLC system to know how the load variations affect the
One of the main characteristics of PLC channels is that transmission of the signal.
they are characterized by load variations in accessible nodes. The effect on the transmitted signal can be calculated both
For instance a domestic network is characterized by cascade in case of a deterministic (known) variation of the loads Yi

140
and in case the variations are only known statistically, i.e. The knowledge of the response bounds is a fundamental
each load is supposed to vary in an interval Yi ∈ Yi min , Yi max . information: the upper bound can be used for an EMI
analysis, to verify if the PLC system meets the EMC
By performing a wavelet expansion in the time domain it is requirements; while the lower bound gives us information
possible to represent a line as a two port circuit, whose about signal transmission in the worst case.
unknowns are voltage and current at the input and output port The technique is based on the previous approach and is
[4]. This representation can also take into account frequency described as follows.
dependence of the line parameters [9]. A variation of one (or several) load leads to a change in
After performing the time domain wavelet expansion of matrix A , hence the new system can be written as
equations (1) or (2) a general transmission line is represented
by an algebraic system Ax = b (15)
vL T T2 v 0 where A is the new matrix resulting from the variation; x is
= 1 (13) the new solution and b remains unchanged since the feeding
iL T3 T4 i 0
generators are the same. Equation (15) can be more
which can be conveniently solved once the input voltage and conveniently written as
the boundary conditions are known. Vectors v and i are the ( A + ∆A )x = ( I + ∆AA −1 ) Ax = b (16)
vectors of coefficients of the wavelet expansion of voltages
and currents. where the variation of the matrix A is now evidenced. The
In case a complex cascade network is analyzed it is solution to equation (15) can be written as
straightforward to define the algebraic systems which gives x = A −1 ( I + ∆AA −1 ) −1 b (17)
the representation of the whole network; indeed the resulting By comparing equations (15) and (17) it is easy to see that
system is in the form Ax=b and is obtained by simply casting b = ( I + ∆AA −1 ) −1 b (18)
the different submatrices reported in eq. (13) together with can be seen as a new input vector for the system with the
the boundary conditions. Equation (14) shows a simple case nominal values of the loads, and the varied response can be
where the system is made by two transmission lines parts and calculated by solving the system
a load, where: matrices Bi take into account the boundary
Ax = b (19)
conditions (line loads), the matrix Y represents the load, and This mean that the effect of the load variation has been
matrix E is the wavelet expansion of the input signal. The moved from the system matrix to vector of the input signals,
unknowns v L , i L , v 0 and i 0 are the wavelet coefficients of changing it from b to b . Let us suppose that there are three
voltages and currents at the terminals, while v Lx / 2 and i Lx / 2 loads varying in a range expressed by p1 ∈ [ p1− , p1+ ] ,
(with x = a or b) are the voltages and currents at the load
p 2 ∈ [ p 2− , p 2+ ] , p3 ∈ [ p3− , p3+ ] ; It is possible to evaluate
terminal. Submatrices I are identity matrices.
I 0 −T1 −T2 0 0 0 0 vL 0 the vectors b for the worst case condition, i.e. solving the
0 I −T3 −T4 0 0 0 0 iL 0 system for the bounds of the above introduced intervals. In
case we have m = 3 varying parameters, we calculate 2m
0 0 I 0 I 0 0 0 vaL / 2 0 equivalent source vectors; the result is the set of vectors
0 0 0 I −Y I 0 0 i aL / 2 0 b p1− , b p1+ b p 2− , b p 2+ , b p 3− , b p 3+ . It is important to
=
0 0 0 0 I 0 −T1 −T2 v bL / 2 0 underline that the calculations of these vectors is performed
0 0 0 0 0 I −T3 −T4 i bL / 2 0 straightforwardly by solving 2 algebraic systems for each
B1 B 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 v0 load.
E
We now define the upper bound as related to a new vector
0 0 0 0 0 0 B3 B 4 i0 0 bup constructed by selecting each maximum wavelet
(14)
If the load Y is known the solution of system (14) gives coefficient in the vectors b , i.e.
directly the voltage at each accessible terminal.
i
bup = max[bip1+ , bip 2+ , bip 3+ , bip1− , bip 2− , bip 3− ] (20)
When the exact value of the load is not known the problem In the same way the lower bound is defined as
could be solved in two different ways: i
blow = min[bip1+ , bip 2+ , bip 3+ , bip1− , bip 2− , bip 3− ] (21)
1. perform a Montecarlo procedure, running several
simulations with random variations of the loads; Now equation (19) can be solved calculating the two
2. implement a procedure which allows the calculation outputs,
of the bounds (upper and lower limit) of the xup = A −1 b up , x low = A −1 b low (22)
response at each single node. We show here a simple example of application: the
Since the Montecarlo procedure is accurate but time considered line has the following parameters: l= 2.65e-7 H/m,
consuming, we have implemented a technique which allows a c = 0.9434e-10 F/m, r=0.35 Ω/m, g=0 S/m; the lines is
simple evaluation of the response bounds. terminated on 53 Ω resistors; the system is characterized by

141
two portions of line length L=25 m and a varying load
parallel connected between the two portions (of which Fig. 5
is the general case). The input signal is a trapezoidal
waveform with rise time tr = 3µ s . The load is supposed to
have a 100 Ω nominal value, and vary in the interval Y ∈[0,
1/20]. Figures 6 - 8 show the response bounds calculate for
the input, output and load voltage.
Fig. 6 Bounds for the input voltage
Fig. 7 Bounds for the output voltage
By analyzing the figures it is evident the effect of the load
and also the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method,
which allows time domain simulations by solving an
algebraic system with a low CPU time.
V CONCLUSION
In this paper we proposed numerical techniques for the
modeling of PLC channels. Our models take into account the
characteristics of the line, external noise, frequency
dependence of the parameters, load variation, and are
accurate and characterized by low CPU time consumption.
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Fig. 8 Bounds for the load voltage
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