Power Line Communication for Low-Bandwidth Control and Sensing

While not designed with communication applications in mind, power lines have been attractive targets for providing ancillary communication services for decades. Unfortunately, loads and switchgear can easily interfere with reliable communication in both direct and subtle ways. Power line communication (PLC) is therefore often relegated to non-critical control tasks like home lighting or appliance control, where communication difficulties or failure simply result in a walk to the light switch. For control applications that require low data rates, unexploited opportunities exist for increasing the reliability of PLC within governing regulatory rules. Reliable, low-bandwidth PLC facilitates new, inexpensive opportunities for demand-side management of the loads in a building or facility. This paper presents approaches for tailoring PLC for reliable low-bandwidth communication, and presents experimental demonstrations in a 24-floor high-rise building with challenging channel conditions.