Selection of Indoor Relay Node Positions for a Three-Hop Low-Voltage Broadband Power Line Communication System

Low-voltage broadband power line communication (PLC) system transmits its information by the power line on the existed infrastructure. However, PLC attenuation and its harsh environment make it difficult to establish a reliable communication between the source and destination nodes, and relay-aided (RA) PLC technology can be used to solve this issue to increase the transmission rate and coverage. In this study, an indoor three-hop RA PLC system is under investigation for the first time. Based on a simple PLC attenuation model, the optimal relay node positions and transmitted power distribution of each node are studied to get the best system performance in theory. Then, a criterion of selection optimal relay node positions in a practical power-line network is derived by solving an optimisation problem. Finally, for a specific power-line network, the criterion for the selection of optimal relay node positions at the existed sockets between the source and destination nodes is verified. The theoretical work in this study could be useful in the design of broadband multi-hop RA PLC systems and their engineering applications.