A Methodology for Estimating Passband PLC Channel Frequency Responses

This paper presents an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based methodology for estimating the passband frequency responses of power line communication (PLC) channels. The proposal combines the estimation and correction of symbol-timing, carrier-frequency, and sampling frequency offsets with channel estimation and enhancement techniques. Its effectiveness is validated through an experimental setup in which software-defined radio (SDR) devices transmit OFDM signals over a non-energized power line cable, and the symbols received by another SDR are processed using the proposed methodology. A comparison with vector network analyzer measurements obtained from the same power line cable shows close agreement, indicating the correctness of the chosen techniques.