Resource allocation and time-frequency modulation for power line communication

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the computational complexity reduction and on the need for network bandwidth associated with the use of resource allocation techniques in power line communication (PLC) system based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme. In this context, the so-called temporal compressive resource allocation (TCRA) technique, which is a sub-optimal technique, is introduced. The TCRA is capable of exploiting the existing relationship among microslots (time domain exploitation) to reduce the number of times per second the resource allocation technique is executed. Also, a noval parameter, called nSNR coherence bandwidth, that precisely informs the flatness of the normalized signal to noise ratio (nSNR) is proposed. The effectiveness of this parameter is compared to the coherence bandwidth. Also, its statistical modeling for in-home, outdoor and low-voltage, and hybrid PLC-wireless channels with single-component and Gaussian mixture distributions is presented. Based on the nSNR coherence bandwidth definition, the spectral compressive resource allocation (SCRA) technique, which is a suboptimal technique, is outlined. The SCRA technique exploits the existing relationship among adjacent subchannels (frequency domain exploitation) to reduce the dimensionality of the nSNR vector, which is the main feeding information for the resource allocation technique. Based on the fact that the geometry of the tiles associated with the discrete Fourier transform limits the gains associated with the use of the SCRA together with the OFDM scheme, the so-called orthogonal time-frequency division multiplexing (OTFDM) scheme is, for the first time, introduced. The OTDFM scheme, which is based on the discrete orthogonal Stockwell transform, offers different tile geometries and works in both baseband and passband data communications. Numerical results based on measured PLC channels and the use of prototype of PLC transceivers show that TCRA and SCRA techniques can trade computational complexity reduction with data rate loss and relevant computational complexity savings may be accomplished with low data rate losses. Moreover, the numerical results show that the OTFDM scheme may be outperformed by the OFDM scheme if channel state information is not available at the transmitter side; however, the availability of such information at the transmitter side allow the use of the OTFDM scheme together with the SCRAs achieve remarkable improvement in comparison with OFDM scheme working with the SCRA technique.