# Analysis of the Channel Influence to Power Line Communications Based on ITU-T G.9904 (PRIME)
## 1 Introduction  
Low Voltage (LV) Power Line Communications (PLC) are a key technology for electric distribution automatization, also known as Smart Grids. The most complicated and expensive part of the electric distribution automation is the low voltage automation, due to the number of points to communicate and their dynamic nature. For this challenge, Low Voltage PLC systems have the advantage of not requiring a specific communication medium deployment, providing an owned network infrastructure with simple installation. The electric line, as a communication channel, has a very variable impedance and transference function. The noise of the channel is also very particular, due to its nature. This noise is originated by the devices connected to the network as loads or generators, and their characteristics strongly depend on each noise source device particular design. The channel is variable in time, due to consumer habits, generation cycles and technology changes, among other factors. It is also variable in space, between rural and urban areas, and between different countries/regions, due to differences in energy consumption habits, lines distribution and consumer/generator technologies. On one hand, it is important to analyze the characteristics of the PLC propagation channel. Some studies have been carried out to analyze this transmission medium characteristics, such as impedance, attenuation, phase shift, noise classification and characterization. As the PLC propagation channel characteristics depend on the particularities of the consumption, generation and distribution of energy, these studies usually perform field measurements in real lines or laboratory measurementswith real noise sources in order to extract relevant statistic information. References [1; 2; 3] present studies of most characteristics of this propagation channel. More recent articles focus on particular channel effects and/or noise models. As an example, reference [4] focuses on non-synchronous impulsive noise modeling, while [5] is centered on narrowband noise modeling. On the other hand, the analysis on how the different characteristics of the propagation channel affect the PLC technologies complement the noise studies. Several references focus on these effects for generic PLC communication systems, like reference [6], which analyzes the influence of the phase distortion on correlation based PLC systems; reference [7], which studies the convolutional encoding performance over channels with noise modeled using a partitioned Markov chain; or reference [8] which investigates the impact of asynchronous impulsive noise on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and Offset Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (OQAM). Some other studies analyze the influence of the channel distortions on G3 and PoweRline Intelligent Metering Evolution (PRIME) standard technologies. Reference [9] is focused on the performance of PRIME technology under impulsive noise environments. In [10], the performance of PRIME and G3 systems under white noise, periodic impulsive noise in the time-domain, and narrowband co-channel interference is analyzed. In [11], the physical layers of G3 and PRIME are compared to each other, by theoretical analysis as well as simulation results. There are several recent articles that reveal the need for additional research on the effects of the channel disturbances. Reference [12] (p. 909) mentions this need: \"There is now a general acceptance of the need for research to understand origin, spread and consequences of emission in this frequency range\". Reference [13] (p. 114) states: \"There is a serious interest from the international standard-setting community in knowledge in the frequency range 2-150 kHz.