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A Synopsis on Internet of Things (IoT) Using Power

Line Communication
KHATRI NIPUN, CHIRAG HARIYA, VIKRANTH BHAT, DIALEN DSOUZA
AbstractThe internet of things the network of physical objects
that enables machine to machine communication which
transforms regular device into smart connected devices. The
Power Line communication can be used as backbone for IoT.
This document is aimed at providing a project synopsis on
Internet of Things Using Power Line (Power line
communication). The said project is centred at designing and
developing a technique for sending high speed data over the
existing infrastructure of 230V 50Hz power line. The system
makes use of multi carrier code division multiple access (MCCDMA) wherein the data is send using moderately high
frequency. The proposed project is aimed at preparing a smart
automation system for IoT using power Line Communication
modem based on wavelet packet analysis to combat the adverse
communication environment.

I.

INTRODUCTION

here has been and still is much hype about the

Internet of Things. The idea of a globally
interconnected continuum of devices. Today, a large
number of different means are used to enable communication
between heterogeneous devices. We see these as "Intranet of
Things", representing vertical silos that do not support
interoperability. However, this balkanisation of efforts will
lead to a predictable slowdown in devising a viable global
solution. Furthermore, existing solutions do not address the
scalability requirements for a future Internet of Things. One of
the solution to the above problems would be to deploy Power
Line Communication. The Power Line Communication
channel is notoriously bad channel that has been developed
without regards for any communication consideration.
However, it is so widely distributed that considerable cost
saving can be achieved if used for data transmission. This is
the sole reason why, power line communication is becoming a
hot research topic since it provides wide range of application
over the existing infrastructure of electric lines. The major
challenge in PLC is to tackle the hostile environment of spiky
and noisy high voltage power line. The proposed project aims
to use MC-CDMA for data transmission and thereby avoid the
problem of time varying channel attenuation, multipath
frequency selective fading and noise. The technique of
wavelet analysis can be used to deal with impedance
matching. Phase Shift Keying modulation technique would be
used to provide bandwidth efficient modulation.
II. IMPLEMENTATION
It is proposed to make PLC modem using Digital Signal
Processing chips and ARM processor. The figure 1 shows a
proposed block diagram for our implementation.

Figure 1: Block Diagram Of Proposed IoT System

Base System: This block serves as a gateway for intra

net of things to connect to Internet of Things i.e. a
bridge between local network and external internet.
This is the heart of or central processing block of the
proposed IoT. The main components of this block are
digital signal processor, ARM microcontroller, Power
Line Communication modem.
Slave System: This block encomprises of systems
which actually interact with electronic and nonelectronic appliances in IoT network.
Home Router: This is usual TCP router which is used
to connect main system to the internet.
III. POWER LINE COMMUNICATION.

Power-line communication (PLC) carries data on a conductor

that is also used simultaneously for AC electric power
transmission or electric power distribution to consumers. It is
also known as power-line carrier, power-line digital subscriber
line
(PDSL),
mains
communication,
power-line
telecommunications, or power-line networking (PLN). A
number of difficult technical problems are common between
wireless and power-line communication, notably those of
spread spectrum radio signals operating in a crowded
environment. Power-line communications systems operate by
adding a modulated carrier signal to the wiring system.
Different types of power-line communications use different
frequency bands. Since the power distribution system was
originally intended for transmission of AC power at typical
frequencies of 50 or 60 Hz, power wire circuits have only a
limited ability to carry higher frequencies. The propagation
problem is a limiting factor for each type of power-line
communications.

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The following block diagram depicts the proposed Power Line
Communication.

C. PSK Modulator and De-modulator:

This block provides reliable modulation of the data. It is
intended to use M-ary PSK to get proper utilisation of limited
bandwidth.
D. Isolation and Filters:
This block basically provides isolation of the cold line
(signals/data) from the hot (mains line). The basic element of
this block is high pass filter which allows only high frequency
components i.e. data signals to enter into the PLC model and
completely rejects the low frequency (50 Hz) high voltage
line.

Figure 2: Power Line Communication

A. Digital Signal Processor:

This block at the transmitter end accepts the data from the
main microcontroller using UART and adds appropriate error
correcting features and converts it into optimised line codes.
At the receiver end an opposite of this occurs i.e. line coded
information is taken in from the CDMA receiver and
corresponding data is transmitted in UART form to the main
C.
B. CDMA:
This block is used to provide port division multiple access
data transmission. It is proposed to utilise the multi carrier
CDMA technique in order to get good noise rejection and
better utilisation of bandwidth.

Figure 3: Generalised block diagram of PLC

Figure 4: Block diagram of proposed IoT system

Figure 5: Simplified block diagram of the PLC system