Simple and Low-Cost PLC Modem for IoT Applications

Authors

  • Adelson Duarte dos Santos Department of Semiconductors, Instruments and Photonics (DSIF), School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas 13083-852, Brazil. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8396-1760
  • Rodrigo Moreira Bacurau Department of Computational Mechanics (DMC), School of Mechanical Engineering (FEM), University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas 13083-860, Brazil. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0861-6729
  • Anderson Vedoveto Martins Department of Semiconductors, Instruments and Photonics (DSIF), School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas 13083-852, Brazil. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1034-1311
  • Alex Dante Integrated Micro and Nanotechnologies Research Group (IMiNa) of the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), Braga 4715-330, Portugal. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1993-0502
  • Elnatan Chagas Ferreira Department of Semiconductors, Instruments and Photonics (DSIF), School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas 13083-852, Brazil. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5732-1831

Keywords:

Internet of things, IoT, Modem, Power line communication, PLC

Abstract

We present in this paper a simple and low-cost Power Line Communication (PLC) modem for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. The proposed modem implements a simple on-off-keying (OOK) modulation/demodulation with only discrete electronic components, not requiring complex ICs, such as processing units. It uses the ground and neutral wires as a channel communication, eliminating the need for complex isolation circuitry. To improve its robustness to noise, the developed PLC modem includes an automatic receiver gain adjustment and a transmitter sweep carrier frequency algorithm. Laboratory tests show that the developed PLC modem is capable of transmitting data at 9,600 bps with no errors if the noise spectral density in the power line is below 111 nVRMS2/Hz in the bandwidth of 150 kHz to 500 kHz. The system was also evaluated in a residential power network, where it presented a bit error rate below 1.21%. Due to its low cost, the developed PLC modem is suitable for low data rate IoT applications such as energy consumption monitoring, appliance monitoring and control, environmental monitoring (temperature, humidity, luminosity), security monitoring (presence sensors), etc.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Adelson Duarte dos Santos, Department of Semiconductors, Instruments and Photonics (DSIF), School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas 13083-852, Brazil.

Adelson D. dos Santos received the B.E. E. degree in electrical engineering from the University Center of FEI, Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil, in 2015, and ˜ the M.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil, in 2018. In 2019, he enrolled in the PhD program at the Department of Semiconductors, Instrumentation and Photonics, University of Campinas, focusing in the design and signal processing circuits for reconfigurable smart sensors. His current research interests include electronic instrumentation, embedded systems, smart sensors, edge computing, energy harvesting and Internet of Things (IoT

Rodrigo Moreira Bacurau, Department of Computational Mechanics (DMC), School of Mechanical Engineering (FEM), University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas 13083-860, Brazil.

Rodrigo M. Bacurau was born in São Bernardo do Campo – SP, Brazil, in 1988. He received the B.Sc. degree in computer engineering from the Federal University of Vale do São Francisco – UNIVASF, Juazeiro – BA, Brazil, in 2011, and the M.Sc and Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from University of Campinas – UNICAMP, Campinas-SP, Brazil, in 2014 and 2017, respectively. In 2019, he joined the School of Mechanical Engineering - FEM, of the University of Campinas – UNICAMP, where he is currently a Professor and Researcher in mechatronics. His current research interests include electronic instrumentation, robotics, signal processing, inertial navigation, sensor fusion and fiber optic gyroscopes.

Anderson Vedoveto Martins, Department of Semiconductors, Instruments and Photonics (DSIF), School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas 13083-852, Brazil.

Anderson V. Martins was born in Umuarama– PR, Brazil. He received the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from Federal University of Santa Catarina – UFSC, Florianópolis – SC Brazil, in 2008, and M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from University of Campinas – UNICAMP, Campinas-SP, Brazil, in 2018. From 2008 to 2015 he worked as R&D engineer, developing electronics prototypes and automating test equipment. His research interests include electronic instrumentation, test automation, embedded systems, IoT, and Industry 4.0.

Alex Dante, Integrated Micro and Nanotechnologies Research Group (IMiNa) of the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), Braga 4715-330, Portugal.

Alex Dante was born in Limeira-SP, Brazil. He received the B.Sc. degree in physics (2009), and the M.Sc. (2012) and Ph.D. (2016) in electrical engineering from the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil. From 2016 to 2021, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Photonics and Instrumentation Laboratory of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil. He is currently working as a Research Engineer at the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), Portugal. His research interests include fiber optic sensors, biosensors, micro and nanofabrication, and electronic instrumentation.

Elnatan Chagas Ferreira, Department of Semiconductors, Instruments and Photonics (DSIF), School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas 13083-852, Brazil.

Elnatan C. Ferreira was born in Fortaleza, Brazil, on April 25, 1955. He received the B.Sc. degree in physics from University of Ceará – Ceará, Brazil, in 1981, and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Campinas, UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil, in 1984 and 1991, respectively. He joined the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, FEEC/UNICAMP, as a Teaching Assistant in 1985, where he is currently an Associate Professor with the Department of Electronics and Microelectronics. His current research interests include electronic instrumentation, signal processing, fiber optic gyroscopes, and fiber optic sensors.

References

G. Bedi, G. K. Venayagamoorthy, R. Singh, R. R. Brooks, and K.-C. Wang, “Review of Internet of Things (IoT) in Electric Power and Energy Systems,” IEEE Internet Things J., vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 847–870, 2018.

D. Minoli, K. Sohraby, and B. Occhiogrosso, “IoT Considerations, Requirements, and Architectures for Smart Buildings – Energy Optimization and Next Generation Building Management Systems,” IEEE Internet Things J., vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 269–283, 2017.

Q. Sun et al., “A Comprehensive Review of Smart Energy Meters in Intelligent Energy Networks,” IEEE Internet Things J., vol. PP, no. 99, pp. 1–1, 2015.

E. Spano, S. Di Pascoli, and G. Iannaccone, “Internet-of-things infrastructure as a platform for distributed measurement applications,” Conf. Rec. - IEEE Instrum. Meas. Technol. Conf., vol. 2015-July, pp. 1927–1932, 2015.

M. Rizzi, P. Ferrari, A. Flammini, and E. Sisinni, “Evaluation of the IoT LoRaWAN Solution for Distributed Measurement Applications,” IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas., vol. 66, no. 12, pp. 3340–3349, 2017.

M. Oliveira Leme, F. Trojan, A. C. Francisco, and A. A. Paula Xavier, “Digital Energy Management for Houses and Small Industries Based on a Low-cost Hardware,” IEEE Lat. Am. Trans., vol. 14, no. 10, pp. 4275–4278, 2016.

H. Ghayvat, S. C. Mukhopadhyay, and X. Gui, “Issues and mitigation of interference, attenuation and direction of arrival in IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee to wireless sensors and networks based smart building,” Meas. J. Int. Meas. Confed., vol. 86, pp. 209–226, 2016.

S. Shoaib, X. Chen, and I. Llewellyn, “Increasing the Effective Range of Smart Meter Home Area Network,” IEEE Antennas Wirel. Propag. Lett., vol. 16, pp. 2898–2901, 2017.

S. Barker, D. Irwin, and P. Shenoy, “Pervasive Energy Monitoring and Control Through Low-Bandwidth Power Line Communication,” IEEE Internet Things J., vol. 4, no. 5, pp. 1349–1359, 2017.

H Gassara, F Rouissi, A Ghazel, “Statistical Characterization of the Indoor Low-Voltage Narrowband Power Line Communication Channel,” IEEE Trans. Electromagn. Compat., vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 123–131, 2013.

D. Chariag, D. Guezgouz, J. C. Le Bunetel, and Y. Raingeaud, “Modeling and simulation of temporal variation of channel and noise in indoor power-line network,” IEEE Trans. Power Deliv., vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 1800–1808, 2012.

T. R. Oliveira, A. A. M. Picorone, S. L. Netto, and M. V. Ribeiro, “Characterization of Brazilian in-home power line channels for data communication,” Electr. Power Syst. Res., vol. 150, pp. 188–197, 2017.

C. Cano, A. Pittolo, D. Malone, L. Lampe, A. M. Tonello, and A. Dabak, “State-of-the-art in Power Line Communications : from the Applications to the Medium,” vol. 8716, no. c, pp. 1–19, 2016, doi: 10.1109/JSAC.2016.2566018.

D. S. Kim, S. Y. Lee, K. Y. Wang, J. C. Choi, and D. J. Chung, “A power line communication modem based on adaptively received signal detection for networked home appliances,” IEEE Trans. Consum. Electron., vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 864–870, 2007.

Y. T. Hwang and S. W. Chen, “Hardware efficient design for narrow band power line communication modem,” IEEE Reg. 10 Annu. Int. Conf. Proceedings/TENCON, pp. 508–512, 2011.

Y. F. Chen and T. D. Chiueh, “Baseband transceiver design of a 128-Kbps power-line modem for household applications,” IEEE Trans. Power Deliv., vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 338–344, 2002.

B. Tiru and P. Boruah, “Design and Testing of a Suitable Transceiver for Full Duplex Communication in Indoor Power Line,” IETE J. Res., vol. 56, no. 5, p. 286, 2010.

C.-H. Wang, C.-Y. Chen, and T.-P. Sun, “Circuit implementation of OOK modulation for low-speed power line communication using X10 standard,” pp. 248–453, 2011.

“Noise Measurements Using a Teledyne LeCroy Oscilloscope,” 2013.

T. Instruments, “MIXED SIGNAL MICROCONTROLLER 1 MSP430AFE2x3 MSP430AFE2x2 MSP430AFE2x1,” 2011.

R. Pi, “Raspberry Pi Compute Module ( CM1 ) Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3 ( CM3 ) Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3 Lite ( CM3L ),” vol. 3, no. October, pp. 0–21, 2016.

Downloads

Published

2022-08-03

How to Cite

Duarte dos Santos, A., Moreira Bacurau, R., Vedoveto Martins, A., Dante, A., & Chagas Ferreira, E. (2022). Simple and Low-Cost PLC Modem for IoT Applications. IEEE Latin America Transactions, 20(12), 2455–2462. Retrieved from https://latamt.ieeer9.org/index.php/transactions/article/view/6666

Issue

Vol. 20 No. 12 (2022): Ordinary Issue

Section

Electronics