Planning and Development of Lab Training Activities for Powerline Communications

This paper discusses the planning and development of student training and activities for the Powerline Communications Laboratory at the Technical Education Institute (TEI), Patras, Greece. Powerline communications is currently an active area of research and development that combines three separate specializations from the standard training of electrical engineers: communications, power, and control systems. A course on powerline communications toward the end of the standard electrical engineer's training provides a useful practice in applying what the students have already been taught in an area that has high potential in modern consumer electronics. The planning of suitable training activities for the students takes into account their background and training at that stage of the course and combines concepts and practices common to communication, power, and control systems. In detail, the training activities involve: (1) familiarization and training with currently available market products for automation/control and broadband powerline communications; (2) open-source software that can be used in the design and simulation of such systems; and (3) fabrication and testing of simple passive filter circuits that can be used for signal coupling into the mains power lines for custom applications.