In-band full duplex broadband power line communications

We introduce in-band full duplexing (IBFD) for broadband power line communication (BB-PLC) systems. Inspired by the use of IBFD in digital subscriber lines, Ethernet, cable communication, and recently in wireless communication, we investigate the constraints and requirements for a successful IBFD implementation in BB-PLC. We propose a two-stage IBFD structure consisting of an initial analog isolation using an active hybrid circuit, and a simplified mixed-domain digital echo cancellation procedure to suppress the self-interference. Furthermore, we enhance the digital cancellation filter to better adapt to linear periodically time-varying channel conditions, commonly encountered in PLC scenarios. We evaluate our solution under diverse power line channel and noise conditions to examine the overall data rate gains that can be achieved. Last, we extend IBFD to multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) BB-PLC systems that enable faster and/or more robust data transmission.