Channel measurements and field tests of narrowband power line communication over Korean underground LV power lines

This paper presents in detail channel and noise characteristics from 50 kHz to roughly 500 kHz based on the field tests over underground low voltage (LV) power lines in residential and industrial areas in Korean electricity grids. We show that the channel characteristics of narrowband signals over underground LV power lines are decent while from the literature, it is known that broadband signals on 2–30 MHz bands over underground power lines experiences some signal attenuations [1–3]. We first describe methodology of channel characteristic measurements including channel magnitude response, noise and line impedance, and obtain channel characteristics over the underground LV lines in the residential and industrial areas. From the channel characteristics results, we show that the narrowband power line communications (PLC) is appropriate over underground LV power lines for automated metering infrastructure (AMI) applications that cover upto 300 m distance with direct connection without any help of other meters in-between. Also based on the measurement results, we adopt appropriate frequency bands for PLC, and bring up power line communication network.