Power Line Communications for Vehicular and Smart Grid Applications

Theevolution of the electrical grid into the Smart Grid (SG) and the transition toelectrical vehicles requires a telecommunication infrastructure and advancedcommunication technologies that offer reliable data connectivity.  Power lines provide a medium through whichdata signals can be conveyed exploiting the Power Line Communication (PLC)technology. Applications of PLC are many: from home/industrial networking, tosmart grid, to in-vehicle (IV) data buses, and vehicle-to-grid (V2G)integration. However, the power line channel is a hostile medium that posesseveral challenges so that appropriate communications and signal processingsolutions have to be devised. This tutorial will focus on SG PLC, IV PLC, V2GPLC and backhauling PLC to connect, for instance, charging stations or roadside wireless base stations to the core network. It will provide an overview ofthe communication medium characteristics, the state-of-the-art physical layerand signal processing techniques, the protocols/standards, and the performanceanalysis. The role of PLC in the context of other wireline and wirelesssolutions, e.g., LIN/CAN buses, wireless sensor networks, wireless IoT,will also be discussed to show that hybrid wireless/PLC approaches are of greatimportance.