Power Line Communications for Smart Grid and IoT
Mentor: Fernando Cruz Roldán
Email: fernando.cruz@uah.es
Phone: (+34) 918856593
University: Universidad de Alcalá
Partner Host Institution: N.A
Keywords: Smart Grid, Internet of Things, OFDM, Wavelet OFDM, Power Line Communications, Physical Layer Procedures

Power Line Communications for Smart Grid and IoT

Smart Grid (SG) and Internet of Things (IoT) will mark one of the greatest technological changes of the first half of the 21st century. In both scenarios, the use of communication technologies must provide capacity, efficiency and reliability in the transmission of information. In addition, it is important to impose the cost of these technologies as a criterion of choice, since their deployment must not involve an economic effort that would lead to the delay or abandonment of their implementation.
This research line focuses on power line communications applied to the abovementioned fields, analysing problems involved in broadband PLC for in-home and vehicular applications, as well as narrowband communications within the Smart Grid framework.
The work to be carried out focuses on the development of physical layer procedures, considering a set of theoretical issues still unsolved:
i) Windowed OFDM. The theoretical calculation of the signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR) for channel impulse responses greater than a symbol.
(ii) Wavelet OFDM. This project is aimed at obtaining the SINR for the bandpass, together with other questions, such as fast algorithms of implementation or the design of prototype filters better than those proposed in the standard.
In addition, it is also intended to explore the use of different medium access technologies as alternative to OFDM and OFDM wavelet:
a) DCT-MCM, which uses discrete cosine transforms (DCT).
b) FAST-OFDM, which uses DCTs in the transmitter and DFTs in the receiver.
c) Other types of FBMC of interest for PLC/RC systems.
For the previous medium access technologies, we are looking for candidates with experience in new techniques of time synchronization, channel estimation, time domain or frequency domain equalization, among other issues.

Departament: Signal Theory and Communications
Research Group: Communications, Multirate Systems, and Biomedical Engineering
More Information: http://agamenon.tsc.uah.es/Personales/fernando/Main.html
http://agamenon.tsc.uah.es/Personales/fernando/Main.html
Relevants projects on the area: Project title: Reliable physical layer technologies for communications over electrical networks. Financing entity: Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (TEC2015-64835-C3-1-R). Participating entities: U. de Alcalá (Department of Signal Theory and Communications (C3-1) and Electronics Department (C03-02)) and U. Politécnica de Madrid (C3-3). Duration, from: 01/01/2016 to: 05/31/2019 Principal investigators: Dr. D. Fernando Cruz Roldán and Dr. D. Manuel Blanco Velasco (Coordinators of the entire project) Number of participating researchers: 7 TOTAL PRICE OF THE PROJECT: € 94,743 (Subproject 1)
Relevants publications on the area: 1.- F. Cruz-Roldán, F. A. Pinto-Benel, José D. Osés del Campo, M. Blanco Velasco, “A Wavelet OFDM receiver for baseband power line communications,” Journal of the Franklin Institute, vol. 353, no. 7, pp. 1654-1671, May 2016, doi 10.1016/j.jfranklin.2016.02.015.
2.- F. A. Pinto-Benel, M. Blanco Velasco, F. Cruz-Roldán, “Throughput Analysis of Wavelet OFDM in Broadband Power Line Communications,” IEEE Access, 2018, doi 10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2796618.