IEEE Draft Standard for Medium Frequency (less than 15 MHz) Power Line Communications for Smart Grid Applications

Physical (PHY) and media access control (MAC) layers of the medium frequency band (less than 12 MHz) broadband power line communication technology for smart grid applications (SGPLC) based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) are specified in this standard. The necessary security requirements that assure communication privacy and allow use for mission critical and security sensitive services and applications are addressed in this standard. The coexistence with other technologies based on IEEE Std 1901(TM)-2010 also are addressed. The approach that is geared towards achieving an extended communication range with medium speeds in comparison with the existing power line communication technologies operating in similar frequency bands is defined in this standard.