A Contribution for Spectrum Sensing in Power Line Communication Systems

In Brazil, the introduction of telecommunication and electric energy regulations for power line communications (PLC) is pushing forward R&D efforts towards the development of this technology. Therefore, the will to improve the usage of the regulated spectrum and its further increase, combined to the necessity of PLC system coexistence with other users of the regulated bandwidth made spectrum sensing an important matter to be addressed. To do so, it is needed to determine the best way to acquire information of the surrounding spectrum: using an antenna or measuring the interference on the power line cable. To offer subsidy to this discussion, measured data for spectrum sensing, which were acquired in Brazil, are presented and analyzed. Also, the performance of energy-detection technique for PLC spectrum sensing is evaluated with this measured data. Based on the qualitative and quantitative analysis, this contribution indicates that an antenna can be a very interesting sensor for cognitive PLC systems.