Dedicated Energy Harvesting in Concatenated Hybrid PLC-Wireless Systems

This work addresses the use of hybrid power line-wireless channels, which are defined as the concatenation of power line communication (PLC) and wireless communication (WLC) channels, for dedicated energy harvesting purposes in in-home facilities. Based on a measured data set of hybrid PLC-WLC channels, we discuss statistical analyses concerning distinct power masks and two different regions that are associated with typical distances from the electric power grids to the wireless device. Moreover, based on the harvested energy from the hybrid PLC-WLC channels, we report the achievable data rates for data communication through narrowband PLC and WLC channels as well as through the hybrid PLC-WLC channels. The analyses show that feasible values of energy can be harvested from the hybrid PLC-WLC channels and that the high power nature of the PLC noise significantly contributes to the total harvested energy. Finally, we point out that interesting achievable data rates can be attained when the harvested energy is used for data communication purposes.