# Network Performance Optimization for Low-Voltage Power Line Communications
## 1 Introduction  
Aging power grids are being increasingly replaced with infrastructure that includes advanced communication technologies, called \"smart grids,\" thereby bringing attention to the use of power line communication (PLC) as an appropriate network technology [1]. Smart grids require advanced communication, control, and information technologies to support intelligent applications, such as electronic control, self-healing, and indoor local area network (LAN) services. The success of a smart grid depends heavily on high-speed and reliable data transmission, because some smart grid applications need to be performed in real time. There is no doubt that smart grids will exploit multiple communication technologies to guarantee reliability, and PLC is very attractive as a viable home area networking (HAN) solution, because of its inherent features such as inexpensive installations, the use of existing electrical wiring, broad coverage, and easy scalability. Power systems generally consist of four parts: generation, transmission, distribution, and consumption. Power is generated and transported at high voltage. It is distributed over regional areas at medium and low voltages (LV) and consumed at LV. In this work, we focus on home area networking technology, which covers LV distribution networks. Broadband PLC (BB-PLC,operating in the 1.8-20 MHz frequency band) is designed to meet the requirements of indoor wired LAN services for residential areas or access network requirements. However, PLC suffers from unpredictable signal-to-noise ratios and bit error rates [2]. Reliable two-way data communication over a multipath fading channel requires robust medium access control (MAC) protocols to overcome these problems. The abovementioned technique is clearly defined in low-voltage power line communication (LVPLC) standards, such as HomePlugAV2, IEEE1901, and PRIME [3; 4]. Current research primarily assumes symmetrical channel characteristics and provides relatively little consideration to the effects of asymmetrical channels and impulse noise on the network performance. Therefore, the author considers the abovementioned factors and their similarity to wireless communication at the sharing nature of a common medium to generally improve the network stability and saturation performance. Recent field tests have revealed a relative drop in performance in one-hop or multi-hop networks when the asymmetric channel factors are considered. Thus, network algorithms play a key role in LVPLC networks [5]. Many algorithms have been improved based on wireless communication networks, and proposed for the LVPLC network. However, all these algorithms are proposed for a specific network scenario; hence, they cannot be easily adjusted for different environments. In [6], the author noted that stations rebroadcast the received frames by adopting a flooding algorithm, which causes many collisions and becomes inefficient as the station density increases. Another study [7] proposed an improved algorithm for controlling the number of broadcasts made by a station. However, the researchers did not consider how retransmission by a given station would affect message reception by neighboring stations. In [8], adopting a higher data rate may also lead to more hops from source to destination and weaker multi-hop network connectivity, which in turn may result in throughput and delay degradation. This dilemma provides the motivation for the current study on the topology control algorithm. Reference [9] shows that providing the right infrastructure for connecting these PLC stations will be a major requirement. For home applications, this infrastructure must be easy to set up, maintain, and must perform well. Homeowners are generally not network experts, and a typical high-performance network is too complex for casual daily usage. The study [10] proposes a solution for home automation and high data rate (theoretical maximum physical rates up to 1 Gbps) local networks by applying the PLC.