Performance of Space-Time-Frequency Coding Over Indoor Power Line Channels

We present a multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) power line communication (PLC) system using coupled indoor differential mode ports, where 2 x 2 and 2 x 4 MIMO configurations are considered. In simulation, MIMO orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) PLC with the two OFDM symbol sequence reordering schemes, namely, Alamouti-scheme-based sequence reordering and circularly-shifted sequence reordering, is compared under the coupled channel conditions. For MIMO coding, we employ a maximum ratio combining scheme that is effective for both MIMO and single-input-single-output over indoor power line conditions. In simulation, we compare space-frequency coding (SFC), space-time coding (STC), and space-time-frequency coding (STFC) over statistical indoor power line channels, including fading, impulse noise, and crosstalk by coupling between ports. STFC and STC are more robust against crosstalk than SFC, and STFC, with some added complexity, outperforms the other coding schemes in terms of bit-error-rate performance. A least squares scheme for power line channel estimation is used, which is simple but has comparable performance to minimum mean square error. A decision-feedback-loop-based crosstalk cancellation scheme that effectively reduces the MIMO channel estimation error due to crosstalk is presented. Simulation results show that STFC is less sensitive to impulse noise than STC or SFC.