A Spectral Compressive Resource Allocation Technique for PLC Systems

This paper focuses on the benefits of the existing relationship among consecutive subchannels (spectral information) in a multi-carrier modulation-based power line communication system for reducing the computational complexity and signaling overhead associated with resource allocation techniques. In this regard, we introduce the spectral compressive resource allocation technique, which reduces the computational complexity and the signaling overhead by grouping subcarriers into chunks, whose length/bandwidth is defined with basis on the so-called normalized signal to noise ratio coherence bandwidth. Moreover, we address the combination of the proposal with another technique that exploits the existing temporal relationship within periodically time-varying power line channels. Based on a data set composed of in-home power line channel estimates and additive noise measurements, we quantify the tradeoff between computational complexity reduction and data rate degradation under distinct scenarios and conditions, and indicate circumstances in which the proposed technique is more useful. Finally, we show that the exploitation of both temporal and spectral information altogether results in more computational complexity reduction and/or less data rate degradation in comparison to other techniques.