Effects of power network parameters on channel capacity in power line carrier communication

A simplified method for channel capacity estimation is derived based on the transmission line theory under the condition of high bandwidth utilization. With this method, the channel capacity is decoupled into several independent components which may help to investigate the effects of backbone and branch, respectively. Analysis of the channel capacity of the structure without any branches reveals the applicable condition for the simplified method, while separate branch effects are investigated by considering the branch length together with the loads. According to investigations on the effects of typical loads, the load sensibility of the channel capacity is obtained. In addition, the coupling effects caused by branch interactions are studied statistically. When the branches are far apart, their coupling effects can be neglected and in this case the channel capacity is in linear relationship to the transmission distance and number of branches. The simulation results of the proposed method are in fairly good agreement with those of the conventional one showing it is applicable to analysis of the influence of different network structures on the performance of power network parameters and fast estimate of the channel capacity.