# Simulation of Achievable Data Rates of Broadband Power Line Communication for Smart Metering
## 3 Performance of Broadband Power Line Communication--Related Works
### Achievable Data Rates of Broadband Power Line Communication--Related Works  
Channel capacities measurements in MV networks have been investigated in previous publications [25; 26; 27; 28; 29; 30]. Shallow spectral notches in CFR are observed on MV lines in comparison with LV lines [31]. Therefore, the whole frequency band can be used for transmission. In contrast with LV lines, the MV line exhibits only two dominant types of noise:  
* _Narrowband noise._ This type of noise is time-variant, and it is the result of interference from other services operating in the same frequency range with BPL. This type of noise is hard to describe and model. The impact of narrowband noise in MV lines on performance is not significant. Our previous measurements [28] show that the narrowband noise caused a decrease of units of dB in the average SNR. This decrease caused only a small decrease in the total throughput. * _Coloured background noise._ This type of noise is caused by corona phenomenon [32] and depends on geographical location, type of cable (overhead, underground), height of cables above the ground, etc. Theoretical channel capacity of 18 Mbps for 1000 m with attenuation \(-80\) dB and 262 Mbps for 400 m with attenuation \(-40\) dB were introduced in a previous study [25]. The underground MV network of 10 kV without considering EMC constraint in the frequency range of 1-30 MHz with power level 1 W was considered. The publication [26] has shown channel capacity over a 10 kV underground medium-voltage line of a length of 700 m with different EMC limits. A capacity of up to 32.7 Mbps could be reached, which agrees with prEN50561 limits. Several EMC norms were accounted for in a previous study [27] to determine channel capacities. The capacity of the order of hundreds of Mbps for a noise PSD equal to 105 dBm/Hz representing the average background noise is achieved. Tens of Mbps are observed in bad channels (130 dBm/Hz representing the best-case noise scenario) for the 3-30 MHz frequency band and FCC limits. Our previous measurements [28] show UDP throughput of 11.75 Mbps and TCP throughput of 7.2 Mbps for 411 m overhead medium lines of 22 kV and 13.4-23.4 MHz frequency band. The results in previous studies [29; 30] show that raw data rate of several tens of Mbps are achievable for MV power lines up to 500 m.  
Channel capacities measurements in LV networks have been investigated in previous publications [33; 34]. The TCP throughput of 83.65 Mbps for a single non-interfering channel was presented in a previous study [33]. The frequency band 2-28 MHz, Wavelet OFDM, HD-PLC solution from Panasonic, and low voltage line were considered. A previous publication [34] presented laboratory testbed and PLC throughput measurements for HomePlug AV2 and IEEE1901 for 50 m length on a separate LV power line. The throughput was approximately 85 Mbps for UDP protocol and 30 Mbps for TCP protocol. Simulations of achievable throughputs of BPL in LV networks have been investigated in previous publications [8; 35; 36; 37; 38]. Simulation results of network reliability (successful upload, delivery ratio, loss, delay, latency) for varied numbers of smart meters carried out in NS-3 were introduced in a previous study [8]. The simulation introduced in another study [35] focuses on the theoretical throughput calculation for the in-home PLC scenario via simulation for different PHY recommendations for IEEE P1901 (Windowed OFDM PHY and Wavelet OFDM PHY) [36]. The PLC in-home model proposed in a previous study [37] is a statistical approach that synthesizes different classes with a finite number of multi-path components. This model considers three power line channel classes: class 1 (strong signal attenuation), class 5 (medium signal attenuation), and class 9 (little signal attenuation).