This document is a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Hertfordshire for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Part Time) in 'EMC in Wire-line Communications' in the School of Electronic, Communication and Electrical Engineering at the University of Hertfordshire. It describes a programme of research into the modelling and measurement of radio frequency interference emissions from various communication networks including Power Line (Tele)communications (PLC/PLT) and Digital Subscriber Line (DSL). An introduction and literature review are followed by the results of practical measurements on installed networks. These measurements include antenna gain and Longitudinal Conversion Loss (LCL). Power line communication networks, splitterless DSL and home phoneline networks in buildings are studied and modelled and the models are compared with the measured results. Improved EMC test methods are also described, in particular the modelling and design of four types of portable antennas for use in radiated EMC measurements with improved sensitivity at frequencies up to 30 MHz. The first type is a set of three manually tuned loop antennas covering 100 kHz - 30 MHz. The second is a set of three loop antennas that cover a similar frequency range but with remote tuning via an optical fibre link, under the control of software which also controls an EMC measuring receiver. The third type is a larger (1.6 m diameter) tuned loop covering 1.75 - 10 MHz that allows the measuring system noise floor to be below the typical atmospheric noise floor. The fourth type is an electrically short dipole covering 10 - 30 MHz with improved matching. The protection requirements for various types of radio communication services are analysed and are compared with emission levels from various types of wireline communication network. A review of existing applicable EMC standards and standards under development is also presented.

In this thesis, we will discuss aging line detection and electrical fire precaution by using powerline communication technique. Fire is always a serious disaster which endangers our lives and property. Electrical fire is a major proportion of fire disaster. Even every house generally setup circuit breaker and fuse in time, electrical fire still occurred oftentimes. Current powerline communication technology is using household powerline as a medium of signal transmission, whose channel characteristic will be affected by surrounding environment. We hope that we can analyze the change of transmission characteristic in high frequency of household powerline, which deterioration during long time. At the same time, we will detect variation of high frequency characteristic of powerline as the basis for judgment of aging line, to prevent electrical fire further. Finally, we combine our approach into PLC system, which can also diagnose the line while transmission of powerline at the same time, adding the value without having too much cost.

Τα δίκτυα δεδομένων έχουν περάσει από πειραματική τεχνολογία στο να γίνουν ένα βασικό εργαλείο για δουλεία, ψυχαγωγία και να χρησιμοποιούνται από επιχειρήσεις και σπίτια παγκοσμίως. Οι επιχειρήσεις χρησιμοποιούν δίκτυα για να μεταφέρουν αρχεία, να μοιράσουν εφαρμογές μεταξύ υπολογιστών, καθώς επίσης και για να δώσουν δυνατότητα πρόσβασης πολλών υπολογιστών μαζί σε δικτυακές συσκευές, όπως είναι για παράδειγμα οι εκτυπωτές. Πέρα από την παραπάνω χρήση, η οποία γίνεται από επιχειρήσεις και είναι αρκετά σημαντική, υπάρχει και η απαίτηση για τη μετάδοση δεδομένων στο σπίτι. Οι χρήστες που έχουν συχνά περισσότερους από έναν υπολογιστές στον ιδιωτικό τους χώρο, χρησιμοποιούν τα δίκτυα δεδομένων έτσι ώστε να διαμοιράσουν αρχεία και δεδομένα, για την αυτοματοποίηση του σπιτιού τους συμπεριλαμβανομένων εφαρμογών όπως τα συστήματα ασφάλειας, για δικτυακά παιχνίδια, για τον έλεγχο θέρμανσης αλλά και για πάμπολλες οικιακές εφαρμογές. Ένας εύκολος, έξυπνος και φθηνός τρόπος δικτύωσης οικιακών δικτύων, είναι η δικτύωση μέσω των ηλεκτρικών γραμμών. / Networks become very popular for small offices and homes. Companies use networks in order all users to be able to communicate and use common printers, scanners, e.t.c. Into our homes, networking become popular due to the use of it. You may control heat, stream audio and video. A way to network you house is power line communication.

Cette thèse démontre la pertinence de l’utilisation du Courant Porteur en Ligne (CPL) pour des applications de réseaux de capteurs. Nous nous focalisons sur la technologie basse consomma- tion et bas débit "WPC" développée par la société Watteco et nous montrons que son utilisation est justifiée pour des applications de réseaux de capteurs. Nous situons la solution WPC dans le paysage du CPL et déterminons les protocoles compatibles. Nous décrivons ensuite l’implé- mentation du module WPC et du média CPL dans le simulateur de réseau COOJA afin de proposer une solution réseau reposant sur l’adaptation du standard 802.15.4 sur la technologie WPC. Nous démontrons ensuite l’intérêt de la convergence des médias au niveau réseau par l’utilisation du standard IPv6, que nous adaptons sur notre solution CPL grâce au protocole 6LoWPAN. Nous justifions l’utilisation des protocoles standards de l’IETF sur notre solution CPL et nous montrons qu’une solution de routage sur CPL doit être développée. Nous montrons par des expérimentations que notre solution CPL correspond aux critères des réseaux basse puis- sance et supportant les pertes de transmissions (LLNs) pour lesquels le protocole standard RPL a été conçu. Nous justifions l’utilisation de ce protocole sur CPL, et validons son implémenta- tion dans le cadre de 2 expérimentations. Formées respectivement de 7 puis 26 noeuds CPL, les résultats montrent que le routage créé par RPL permet de couvrir un étage d’un bâtiment avec une topologie de type arbre et une profondeur de 3 sauts maximum. Nous montrons également que la technologie WPC permet une connectivité importante entre les noeuds du réseau et que la qualité des liens est fortement dynamique, mais que le routage permet de s’adapter à ces variations. Nous pointons également les limites de notre solution CPL qui présente des délais importants et des débits faibles, générant de contraintes fortes sur les applications. Notre solu- tion de réseau de capteur sur CPL repose sur le standard IP, permettant des échanges de paquets avec d’autres technologies. Nous étudions ainsi la possibilité de créer des réseaux hétérogènes mélangeant la technologie WPC et radio 802.15.4. Nous montrons que notre pile protocolaire permet la création de ce type de réseau, afin de profiter du meilleur des 2 mondes. Nous décri- vons ainsi l’architecture d’un noeud hybride Radio Fréquence (RF) / CPL permettant de faire transiter les paquets entre ces 2 médias. Nous montrons ensuite que l’utilisation combinée de ces 2 médias augmente le nombre de chemins disponibles et permet de faciliter le routage, en diminuant le nombre de sauts et le risque que certains noeuds du réseau soient inaccessibles. Nous démontrons ensuite que l’injection de noeuds CPL et RF/CPL dans un réseau formé de noeuds RF sur batterie permet de les délester de leur charge de routage afin de prolonger leur durée de vie. Nous présentons ensuite une optimisation énergétique matérielle et logicielle d’un noeud radio. Nous déterminons les paramètres des protocoles et les optimisations logicielles per- mettant de tirer au mieux partie de cette architecture et nous réalisons l’étude énergétique de la sonde embarquée sur le noeud. Au final, notre architecture présente une consommation totale inférieure à 17 μW. Nous indiquons dans les annexes nos implications dans les organismes de standardisation qui ont permis de valider l’implémentation. / This thesis demonstrate the relevance of Powerline Communication (PLC) usage for sensor networks applications. We focus in particular on the low power and low data rate PLC technol- ogy "Watt Pulse Communication" (WPC) developed by the Watteco company and justify its usage for sensor network applications. We situate the WPC technology in the PLC landscape and define compatible protocols. We then describe the WPC module and the PLC media im- plementation in the COOJA network simulator. This allows us to propose a network solution over this technology, leveraging on the adaptation of the 802.15.4 standard over the WPC tech- nology. We then demonstrate the benefit of media convergence at the network layer level, with the use of the IPv6 standard that we adapted over our PLC solution thanks to the 6LoWPAN protocol. We justify the usage of standards protocols over our PLC solution and show that a routing solutions must be developed over WPC. We show through experiments that our PLC solution match low power and lossy network (LLNs) criterions for which the RPL standard pro- tocol has been designed. We justify the usage of this routing protocol over our PLC solution, and validate its implementation through 2 experiments conducted in tertiary types buildings. Respectively composed of 7 and 26 PLC nodes, results show that the routing topology created by RPL enable the coverage an entire floor of a tertiary building with a tree based topology and 3 hops maximum path length. We also show that the WPC technology exhibits a high connectivity between nodes and that the link quality is highly dynamic. Though, we observed that the routing topology was able to handle these variations. We point out the limitations of our PLC solution, which presents high delays and low throughput, creating high constraints on applications. Our sensor network solution over PLC relies on the IP standard, enabling packets exchanges with other technologies using the same protocol. In particular, we study the possi- bility to create heterogeneous networks mixing the WPC technology with 802.15.4 radio. We show that our protocol stack used over PLC enable to create this type of network, in order to benefit from the best of these 2 worlds. We purpose an architecture of a hybrid Radio / PLC node enabling to transfer packets between these 2 media. Then, we show that the combined usage of these 2 media increase the number of available paths and facilitate the routing, while diminishing the number of hops and possible unreachability of nodes. We then demonstrate that the addition of PLC and Radio/PLC nodes in a RF based battery powered sensor network enable to relieve their routing charge in order to expand their lifetime. We then continue the energy study with a power consumption optimization of a wireless sensor network platform from the hardware and software standpoint. We first determine the operating frequency, the wake up frequency and the mode of operation of the micro controller offering the lowest power consump- tion. We then conduct an energy study of 4 different radio transceivers using the 2.4 GHz and 868 MHz frequency band, in order to determine the most efficient architecture. We determine the protocols parameters and the software optimization to reach the lower power consumption of this architecture. Finally, we realize the energy study of several probes than can be embedded on the node, according to their nature and functioning mode. Our final architecture exhibits a total power consumption that is lower than 17 μW, with an applicative reporting each 10 minutes and the maintenance of the reachability with the network. We also mention in annex parts our implication in standards developments organizations such as the IETF a the IPSO alliance, that allow us to validate the implementation of our solution through interoperability events.

This diploma thesis deals with the design and testing of a system for powerline communication, enabling control of LED lights. The work first describes the basic principles of powerline communication, specifies the communication bands and summarizes the basic functional requirements for communication within the system for LED lighting control. It also describes the method of selecting a modem for powerline communication, the design of a test module with this modem and also the method of testing real communication between two test modules, including test results. The most comprehensive part of the work describes the design of hardware and software of the universal PLC module and how to use it. In addition, it referes to the development tools used as an example of implementation in LED lighting. At the end of the work are summarized the results of testing the proposed system.

The thesis deals with the design and implementation of smart house lighting. In the living parts of the house, the light intensity is maintained at a constant level which is set by the user. The intensity of lighting can be set manually for each room from a central module with a user interface. It can also be changed by any remote control directly in the room in which the user is currently located. When the remote control is used, the information about the change of light intensity is transmitted to the central module. For communication between the central module and the luminaires, the existing power lines are used.

Denna studie undersöker rimlighet samt för- och nackdelar med att låta CAN-kommunikation ske över DC-ledare mellan laddare och batteri istället för separat kablage. Detta gjordes genom att testa en vald lösning som fanns tillgänglig på marknaden. Tester bestod huvudsakligen av att logga datatrafik i olika testscenarion och sedan analysera denna. Alla tester kunder inte slutföras till följd av trasiga komponenter, dock pekadeinsamlad data på att fel som uppstår delvis är frekvensberoende till följd av oavsiktlig filtrering av signalen till följd av kondensatorer och induktorer kopplade mot DC-ledarna på laddar-sidan. Detta ledde till slutsatsen att tekniken bör kunna användas om alla systemets komponenter kan modifieras för att minimera inverkan.

Un code de permutations G(n,d) un sous-ensemble C de Sym(n) tel que la distance de Hamming D entre deux éléments de C est supérieure ou égale à d. Dans cette thèse, le groupe des isométries de (Sym(n),D) est déterminé et il est prouvé que ces isométries sont des automorphismes du schéma d'association induit sur Sym(n) par ses classes de conjugaison. Ceci mène, par programmation linéaire, à de nouveaux majorants de la taille maximale des G(n,d) pour n et d fixés et n compris entre 11 et 13. Des algorithmes de génération avec rejet d'objets isomorphes sont développés. Pour classer les G(n,d) non isométriques, des invariants ont été construits et leur efficacité étudiée. Tous les G(4,3) et les G(5,4) ont été engendrés à une isométrie près, il y en a respectivement 61 et 9445 (dont 139 sont maximaux et décrits explicitement). D’autres classes de G(n,d) sont étudiées. A permutation code G(n,d) is a subset C of Sym(n) such that the Hamming distance D between two elements of C is larger than or equal to d. In this thesis, we characterize the isometry group of the metric space (Sym(n),D) and we prove that these isometries are automorphisms of the association scheme induced on Sym(n) by the conjugacy classes. This leads, by linear programming, to new upper bounds for the maximal size of G(n,d) codes for n and d fixed and n between 11 and 13. We develop generating algorithms with rejection of isomorphic objects. In order to classify the G(n,d) codes up to isometry, we construct invariants and study their efficiency. We generate all G(4,3) and G(4,5)codes up to isometry; there are respectively 61 and 9445 of them. Precisely 139 out of the latter codes are maximal and explicitly described. We also study other classes of G(n,d)codes.

In many modern wireless and wireline communication networks, the interference power from other communication and non-communication devices is increasingly dominating the background noise power, leading to interference limited communication systems. Conventional communication systems have been designed under the assumption that noise in the system can be modeled as additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). While appropriate for thermal noise, the AWGN model does not always capture the interference statistics in modern communication systems. Interference from uncoordinated users and sources is particularly harmful to communication performance because it cannot be mitigated by current interference management techniques. Based on previous statistical-physical models for uncoordinated wireless interference, this dissertation derives similar models for uncoordinated interference in PLC networks. The dissertation then extends these models for wireless and powerline interference to include temporal dependence among amplitude samples. The extensions are validated with measured data. The rest of this dissertation utilizes the proposed models to design receivers in interference limited environments. Prior designs generally adopt suboptimal approaches and often ignore the problem of channel estimation which limits their applicability in practical systems. This dissertation uses the graphical model representation of the OFDM system to propose low-complexity message passing OFDM receivers that leverage recent results in soft-input soft-output decoding, approximate message passing, and sparse signal recovery for joint channel/interference estimation and data decoding. The resulting receivers provide huge improvements in communication performance (more than 10dB) over the conventional receivers at a comparable computational complexity. Finally, this dissertation addresses the design of robust receivers that can be deployed in rapidly varying environments where the interference statistics are constantly changing. / text

Traditionally, noise in communication systems has been modeled as an additive, white Gaussian noise process with independent, identically distributed samples. Although this model accurately reflects thermal noise present in communication system electronics, it fails to capture the statistics of interference and other sources of noise, e.g. in unlicensed communication bands. Modern communication system designers must take into account interference and non-Gaussian noise to maximize efficiencies and capacities of current and future communication networks. In this work, I develop new multi-dimensional signal processing methods to improve performance of communication systems in three applications areas: (i) underwater acoustic, (ii) powerline, and (iii) multi-antenna cellular. In underwater acoustic communications, I address impairments caused by strong, time-varying and Doppler-spread reverberations (self-interference) using adaptive space-time signal processing methods. I apply these methods to array receivers with a large number of elements. In powerline communications, I address impairments caused by non-Gaussian noise arising from devices sharing the powerline. I develop and apply a cyclic adaptive modulation and coding scheme and a factor-graph-based impulsive noise mitigation method to improve signal quality and boost link throughput and robustness. In cellular communications, I develop a low-latency, high-throughput space-time-frequency processing framework used for large scale (up to 128 antenna) MIMO. This framework is used in the world's first 100-antenna MIMO system and processes up to 492 Gbps raw baseband samples in the uplink and downlink directions. My methods prove that multi-dimensional processing methods can be applied to increase communication system performance without sacrificing real-time requirements. / text