Equalization of Narrowband Indoor Powerline Channels for High Data Rate OFDM Communications

In this paper the well known Zadeh’s series representation of a linear periodically time varying system is exploited to develop linear equalization techniques for narrowband powerline communications based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing. Numerical and experimental results referring to the band 200-500 kHz evidence that a coherent receiver exploiting the proposed equalizers can significantly outperform both its counterpart based on conventional channel estimation/ equalization techniques and differential detection with a limited complexity. This leads to the conclusion that a coherent receiver incorporating the proposed equalization techniques represents a technically appealing solution for narrowband high data rate powerline communications in indoor scenarios.