Real-time synchronization and multiband detection for narrowband power line communication

In this paper, an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based narrowband power line communication (PLC) system is considered. Moreover, the transmission frequency band is adjustable at the transmitter through the spectrum assignment process, in order to avoid channel notches and narrowband interferences and hence improving the spectral efficiency and performance of the transmission. At the receiver, a joint time-domain synchronization and band detection algorithm is proposed which is adaptable to the real-time changes of the transmission band. Simulation results confirm that the proposed approach discovers the start of the symbol header as well as the selected transmission band without any prior knowledge of this selection and is capable of following the changes in the spectrum assignment process throughout the transmission.