Proposed frame and preamble structure for MIMO narrowband power line communications

Narrowband power line communications (NB-PLC) operating in the 3-500 kHz frequency band is proposed as a solution to support the emerging Smart Grid applications that aim to optimize the efficiency and reliability of the power grids. PLC is attractive for Smart Grid communications as it can be deployed over the existing power grids without any additional infrastructure. However, PLC suffers from impulsive noise and frequency-selective channels which degrade the system's reliability and data rate. Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) PLC is a promising technology to increase the data rate and provide robustness against the PLC interference. In this paper, we consider the design of a MIMO frame and preamble structure that can be efficiently used to perform initial receiver synchronization while ensuring backward compatibility with current NB-PLC standards.