2014 18th IEEE International Symposium on Power Line Communications and Its Applications
Coherence Time and Sparsity of Brazilian Outdoor
PLC Channels: A Preliminary Analysis
Antonio Angelo Missiaggia Picorone Raimundo Sampaio Neto
UFJF, CEMIG and CES/JF Pontifı́cia Universidade Católica
Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Email: picorone@ieee.org Email: raimundo@cetuc.puc-rj.br
Abstract—This work aims at offering an initial analysis of
coherence time and sparsity of power line communication (PLC)
channels, which were measured in the outdoor and low-voltage
electric distribution networks in Brazil. In this regard, a proce-
dure for estimating coherence time and sparsity of PLC channels
is described. In the sequel, estimates of coherence time and
sparsity of several measures of Brazilian PLC channels are
reported. The attained results confirm that only the coefficients
of channel impulse responses with the largest amplitudes are
relevant to estimate the coherence time. Moreover, they also
indicate that the sparsity of PLC channel is a random variable
that deserves more investigation and analysis.
Keywords—powerline communication, channel estimation,
compressive sensing, digital communication.
I. I NTRODUCTION
The eletric power distribution networks have lately been
seen as a promising option for being a data communication
medium, especially with the possibility of using it to meet
the demands of smart grid data communication [1]. The
technology that explores this opportunity is called Power
line Communication (PLC). It is well-known that such net-
works does not provide point-to-point connection between the
transmitter and the receiver, but a bus consisting of several
derivations, with loads that introduce changes in the system
transfer function. Usually, the loads connected in this bus
have a dynamic behavior, some being randomly connected
and disconnected to and from the bus, others synchronously
switching in or off with the main frequency. This dynamic
results in time-varying impedances at the access points besides
impedances mismatches in the branching points. Thus, the
signal does not propagate only directly from the transmitter to
the receiver, since signal reflections arise at points where there
are impedance mismatches, featuring multiple paths spreads
[2], [3].
Usually, the received signal has a longer duration than the
transmitted signal due to different delays in the signal paths.
This phenomenon is known as dispersion time [4]. Moreover,
the received signal can have a bandwidth greater than the
bandwidth of the transmitted signal, due to different values of
frequency shifts originated from Doppler effect of multipath
components. This second phenomenon is known as frequency
dispersion [4]. For all this, the modeling of the electric power
distribution network as a data communication medium can be
classified as time and frequency selective (doubly selective)
[5].
To design efficient PLC systems or to know, a priori,
which PLC system design will perform better on a specific
electric power distribution network, it is important to know the
variability of parameters that model these grids as data commu-
nication medium. One of the parameters used to describe this
978-1-4799-4980-9/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE 1
Moisés Vidal Ribeiro
UFJF and Smarti9
Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Email: mribeiro@ieee.org
variability is the so called coherence time. The knowledge of
the coherence time of PLC channels is important to the design
of efficient PLC systems, since it can prevent unnecessary
estimates performed within the coherence time and, therefore,
maximize the PLC system throughput. The typical coherence
time in indoor electric power grids are reported as not less than
600µs [6], although little is said about outdoor electric power
networks. Additionally, the sparsity of a channel is becoming
relevant because compressing sensing techniques can be used
to characterize PLC channels and to estimate their lengths of
cyclic prefix. Despite of their importance, sparse representation
and coherence time of outdoor and low-voltage PLC channels
have not been addressed in the literature.
In this regards, this contribution aims at offering an initial
analysis of coherence time and sparsity of PLC channels,
which were measured in the outdoor and low-voltage electric
distribution networks in Juiz de Fora city, Brazil [7], [8].
To do so, procedures to characterize the sparsity and the
coherence time of PLC channels are described and evaluated.
The reported results confirm that only the coefficients with the
largest amplitudes are relevant to estimate the coherence time.
Furthermore, they suggest that a straight line is the curve that
best represents the evolution of the correlation between the
coefficients of the channel impulse response (CIR).
This paper is organized as follows: Section II discusses a
brief review of the coherence time to analyze PLC channels.
Section III presents the procedure proposed to estimate the
coherence time of PLC channel. It also suggests a strategy to
represent measured outdoor PLC channel as sparse. The results
obtained in the analysis of the coherence time are shown in
Section IV. Conclusions about this work and some proposals
for future investigations are presented in Section V.
II. C OHERENCE TIME OF PLC CHANNEL
Both time and frequency dispersions of a channel cause vari-
ations in the received signal in the time domain. The coherence
time Tc is defined as the time separation for which the samples
of the same channel can be considered uncorrelated in the time
domain. In other words, Tc is a measure of the time interval
for which the channel can be considered nearly invariant in
time domain [9].
Due to signal reflections, transmitted signals often appear on
the receiver with different amplitudes and phases. Considering
that there are effectively L echoes of the transmitted signal
arriving at the receiver, the CIR at instant t due to a unit
impulse δ(·) applied at the instant τ can be expressed as:
L
X
h(t, τ ) = αl (t)δ(t − τ − ξl ). (1)
l=1
If p(t) is the input to this channel its output is given by One can get an approximation h̃[n] of h[n], by keeping only
Z +∞ L the more significant coefficients. Here we kept the Nt,n < N
first coefficients of h[n], so that
X
po (t) = h(t, τ )p(τ )dτ = αl (t)p(t − ξl ). (2)
−∞ l=1
( Nt
)
X
2
Therefore, ξl in (1) denotes individual time delay and αl (t) Nt,n = min Nt : |hl [n]| ≥ Kt , (10)
is a zero mean complex gain that incorporates the attenuation l=1

factor and phase shift of the lth echo. In a time invariant linear where 0 < Kt ≤ 1. As it can be seen, Kt truncates the
channel the complex gains do not change with time. Thus, the measured CIR based on cumulative energy of their coefficients.
coherence time of the channel modeled by (1) is related to the When considering the M channel measurements, the average
coherence time of the gains {αl (t)}. value of Nt,n can be obtained by
When the complex processes αl (t), l = 1, 2, . . . , L, are M
uncorrelated and wide-sense stationary, that is: 1 X
N̄t = Nt,n . (11)
M n=1
E[αl (t1 )αk∗ (t2 )] = 0, l 6= k (3)
The average energy accumulated up to the lth coefficient of
and
the vector h[n] is given by
E[αl (t)αl∗ (t + ∆)] = Rαl (∆t), l = 1, 2, . . . , L, (4) M l
1 XX
then, the channel characterized by (1) is known as a WSSUS Ēl = |hk [n]|2 . (12)
M n=1
k=1
(wide-sense stationary uncorrelated scattering) channel.
The correlation index between samples of αl (t) taken ∆t Even with the CIR length limited to only Nt,n samples,
time units apart is given by it can be considered in many cases that the CIR energy is
concentrated in only a few coefficients. Hence, the original
Rαl (∆t)
ραl = , l = 1, 2, . . . , L, (5) measured PLC channel has been represented as a sparse
Pl
channel. The sparse PLC channel is characterized by having
where Pl = Rαl = E[|αl2 (t)|] is the average power of the lth most of its coefficients equal to zero. The sparse level of a
path. vector v = [v1 v2 . . . vi ]T can be defined as [11]:
The correlation index of a WSSUS channel described by
(1) and (4) results as the weighted average of the individual S = ♯{i : vi 6= 0}, (13)
correlation index ραl (∆t): in which ♯{·} denotes the set cardinality. To achieve a sparse
PL
Pl ραl (∆t) representation of h̃[n] one must consider only the represen-
ρh (∆t) = l=1 PL ; 0 ≤ |ρh (∆t)| ≤ 1. (6) tative coefficients of each PLC channel realization. This can
l=1 Pl be accomplished by zeroing the coefficients whose amplitudes
Hence the coherence time, Tc , of the channel can be are smaller than a certain value. Therefore, a new vector is
obtained via obtained and given by:
|ρh (∆t)| ≥ β, (7) ȟ[n] = [ȟ1 [n] ȟ2 [n] ȟ3 [n] . . . ȟNt,n [n]]T , (14)
where 0 < β < 1 refers to the minimum correlation index where,
admitted to characterize the channel as time-invariant during 
h̃l [n], if |h̃l [n]| ≥ Ks maxl {|h̃l [n]|}
the time interval Tc . From that point, the coherence time for ȟl [n] = (, 15)
0, otherwise
the correlation index β is denoted by Tcβ .
Section III presents the treatment given to the set of mea- and 0 < Ks ≤ 1. As a result, different levels of sparsity may
sured PLC channels obtained by sounding approach based on result from distinct measured PLC channel, while maintain-
orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technique ing constant Ks . These sparse representations obtained from
[10]. PLC channels can be quite interesting to be used to deploy
compressive sensing techniques [12].
III. A DJUSTMENTS IN THE MEASURED CIR
However, depending on the characteristics of the measured
Consider that one new CIR measurement is obtained every channels and the choices of parameters Kt and Ks , the sparsity
(N +Lcp )Ts seconds, where N represents the number of sam- variations may pose a problem for the estimation of the
ples taken in each one of the M measurements, Lcp denotes the coherence time, since distinct set of coefficients with rele-
length of the cyclic prefix, Ts = 1/2B, the sampling period, vant amplitudes may occur in different measures. Moreover,
and B, the frequency band considered. Suppose also that the coefficients with small amplitudes are not relevant to estimate
channel is linear and invariant during each CIR measurement. the coherence time of the PLC channel, since they carry little
Thus, the nth normalized CIR is given by energy. These facts may cause a distortion in the estimates of
1 the coherence time. To overcome this effect, only the more
h[n] = [h1 [n] h2 [n] h3 [n] . . . hN [n]]T , relevant coefficients are considered to evaluate Tcβ . In this
||h[n]||2
n = 1, 2, . . . , M, (8) regards, let El be the mean energy of ȟl [n]
M
where [·]T denotes matrix transpose ||·||p is the ℓp -norm, given 1 X
El = |ȟl [n]|2 . (16)
by v M n=1
uN
uX
||s||p = tp
|si |p . (9) We then order the coefficients of the vector ȟ[n] in (14) in
i=1 descending order, such that, E(1) ≥ E(2) ≥ E(3) ≥ . . . ≥

2
E(Nt,n ) and neglect the coefficients with small mean energy.
The vector containing only the most relevant coefficients for
calculating Tcβ is given by:
hc [n] = [ȟ(1) [n] ȟ(2) [n] ȟ(3) [n] . . . ȟ(Nc ) [n]]T , (17)
and the data acquisition system, since their values are much
smaller than those found in the interval corresponding 2.5µs.
Figure 2 highlights the percentage of stored average energy
in each N -length CIR coefficient of M channel measures. This
1

where
0.95

Nc = max l : E(l) ≥ Kc E(1) . (18)
0.9 ←− (251, 0.9)
IV. R ESULTS
0.85

The variability analysis of the measured PLC channel was

ĒN
0.8
performed on the frequency band from 1.7 up to 100 MHz,
adopting Fs = 1/Ts = 200 MHz. 0.75

Table I presents the basic parameters of the PLC channel

estimation algorithm adopted in the measurement campaign 0.7

[7], [8], [10]. 0.65

TABLE I 0.6
PARAMETERS FOR THE ACQUISITION OF h[n]. 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
N

Description Variable Value Fig. 2. Stored average energy in each CIR coefficient.
Number of CIR obtained M 756
Samples for each measurement N 4098
Samples for cyclic prefix Lcp 512
result suggests that, on the average, 90% of the measured
Sampling frequency Fs 200 MHz CIR energy of the PLC channel is concentrated in the first
PLC channel bandwidth Bw 100 MHz 251 coefficients. Thus, taking into account, Nt = 251 and
Kt = 0.9, equation (10) yields a first approximation to h[n],
Table II summarizes the values adopted in the various i.e., the truncated version h̃[n] containing only the Nt,n initial
parameters to adjust the CIR measures. coefficients of any measured PLC channel.
Figure 3 illustrates consecutive measurements of the h̃[n]
TABLE II amplitudes. Note from this figure that the majority of the
VALUES OF PARAMETERS ADOPTED TO PROCESS THE CIR MEASURES
h̃[n] (mV)
Description Variable Value 250 0.25
coefficient index of h̃[n]

Measured CIR energy % (truncated CIR) Kt 0.9 0.2

Coefficients amplitude % (sparse CIR) Ks 0.05
Selecting the most relevant factors Kc 0.1 200 0.15

Minimum coherence index β 0.9

0.1

150 0.05
Figure 1 depicts, at the top, a PLC channel measure, and
at the bottom, a zoom of the first 2.5µs of its CIR. It can be 0

100 −0.05
40
−0.1
h(t) mV

20
50 −0.15

0
−0.2

−20
−0.25
100 200 300 400 500 600 700
−40 n
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
t/µs
Fig. 3. Consecutive measurements of the amplitudes of h̃[n] (Nt coeffi-
40
cients).
h(t) mV

20
coefficients of h̃[n] have amplitudes close to zero. These fact
0
distort the estimates of the coherence time of the PLC channel.
−20 To deal with this situation, h̃[n] was approximated by a sparse
−40
version, adopting Ks = 0.05 in (15). Figure 4 illustrates the
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
t/µs consecutive measurements of the ȟ[n] amplitudes when the
value Ks = 0.05 is adopted.
Fig. 1. (a) Measured CIR and (b) Beginning of the measured CIR. Figure 5 illustrates sparsity variation of the sparse version
measured of PLC channel when (13) is applied. It can be seen
observed from this figure that the most significant coefficients from this figure that the sparsity of measured PLC channels is
are concentrated at the beginning of CIR which, in this case, not constant. In fact, for thus campaign, the sparsity assumes
corresponds to a time interval of about 2.5µs. Furthermore, the values between 20 and 28, with mean µS ≈ 24 and variance
figure also suggests that in this interval, the small amplitudes of σS2 ≈ 3.
the measured CIR coefficients may be considered background Figure 6 portrays the correlation evolution in each ȟ[n]
noise originated from the electric power distribution network coefficient considering the measured PLC channel as WSSUS.

3
 ȟ[n] (mV) ρhc [∆n]
250 0.25 0.9

coefficient index of hc [n]

coefficient index of ȟ[n] 22
0.2
0.8
20

200 0.15
18 0.7

0.1
16
0.6
150 0.05
14
0.5
0
12

−0.05 0.4
100 10

−0.1 0.3
8

50 −0.15 6 0.2

−0.2 4
0.1

−0.25 2
100 200 300 400 500 600 700
n 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
n

Fig. 4. Consecutive measurements of the amplitudes of ȟ[n] for Ks = 0.05.

Fig. 7. Evolution of the 23 largest correlation coefficients ḧ[n] (Kc = 0.1)

29

28
when considering all M measured CIR.
Finally, to obtain a coherence time estimate of the measured
27
PLC channel, the value β = 0.9 was considered in (7). Figure 8
26 shows the correlation curves overlap of the that 23 coefficients
S-sparse

25 of hc [n]. In this case, the curve that represents the correla-

24

1
23 more relevant coefficients
average
0.9 ← (75,0.9)
22

0.8
21

0.7
20
ρhc [∆n]

0.6
19
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
n 0.5

0.4
Fig. 5. Sparsity of the measured PLC channel (ȟ[n]).
0.3

0.2

The low correlation coefficients in this one can be justified by

0.1

ρȟ [∆n] 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
0.9
55
n
coefficient index of ȟ[n]

50 0.8
Fig. 8. Correlation curves of the 23 largest coefficients of the PLC channel.
45 0.7

40 tion index evolution along the measurements approximates a

0.6

35
straight line and has an abscissa equal to 75 for β = 0.9,
30
0.5 i.e., it takes Mc = 75 measures of the PLC channel to reach
0.4
a correlation equal to 0.9. Applying this result in (7), and
25
considering the time to obtain each CIR (N Ts ), the coherence
20 0.3 time estimated from the measurement campaign is:
15

10
0.2
Tc0.9 = Mc (N + Lcp )Ts = 1.729ms. (19)
0.1
5 V. C ONCLUSION
0
100 200 300 400
n
500 600 700
This contribution presented an initial analysis of coherence
time and sparsity of Brazilian outdoor and low-voltage PLC
Fig. 6. Evolution of the correlation in each coefficient ȟ[n]. channels and procedures to characterize both sparsity and
coherence time parameters. The numerical results, which are
the low values of amplitude for some of coefficients of ȟ[n]. based on measured PLC channels, confirm that only the
Consequently, in order to estimate the coherence time of the coefficients with the largest amplitudes are relevant to estimate
PLC channel, more relevant coefficients were selected in ȟ[n] the coherence time of PLC channel. Based on this initial
from (17). Figure 7 shows the evolution of the 23 correlation investigation, the coherence time was found to be equal to
coefficients of ȟ[n], when it is adopts Kc = 0.1. This figure 1.729 ms, which is longer than the reported coherence time for
suggests that the selected coefficients have a similar correlation indoor and low-voltage PLC channel, see [6]. Also, it suggests

4
that a straight line is the curve that best represents the evolution
of the correlation between the coefficients of a PLC channel.
The analysis of the sparsity of PLC channels show that it is
a random variable and because of that representative database
of measured PLC channels is require to carry out its statistical
characterization.
At the moment, a new measurement campaign is being
carried out to allow the introduction of statistical models for
both coherence time and sparsity parameters.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was supported by CNPq, CAPES, FAPEMIG,
FINEP, P&D ANEEL-CEMIG, INERGE and Smarti9.
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