High rate data communication via power distribution network using DS-CDMA technique

The use of power distribution networks for communication is becoming more and more important due to the need for new transmission lines. This could solve the difficulty of connecting a single user to a higher level network because low tension powerlines end in every room of every flat. In this paper a system is presented which offers a high data rate to each user. It is based on the direct sequence spread spectrum technique (DS-CDMA). The principles for such a power line communication system have been presented previously. Based on that a hardware realisation was built up by the authors to investigate the achievable bit error rate. The presented measurements of transmission characteristics of the low tension network are the foundations for simulating the proposed communication system. All investigations confirm that the presented transmission scheme is suited for establishing a high data rate communication via low tension powerlines.