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Internet of Things on Power Line Communications: An Experimental

Performance Analysis

Chapter · January 2019

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-13-1768-2_13

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Chapter 13: Internet of Things on Power Line
Communications: an Experimental
Performance Analysis

Luca DAVOLI1,§, Luca VELTRI2, Gianluigi FERRARI3, Umberto AMADEI4

Abstract The giant information exchange enabled by the Internet of Things (IoT)
paradigm, i.e., by a “network of networks” of smart and connected devices, will
likely exploit electrical lines as a ready-to-use infrastructure. Power Line Commu-
nications (PLC) have received a significant attention in the last decade, as electri-
cal lines are not used as simple energy supply media, but as information carriers.
Among the different aspects of PLC-based architectures, an interesting and im-
portant analysis have to be reserved to security aspects that should be adopted in
similar infrastructures, having that they are crucial to deliver trustworthy and reli-
able systems and, hence, to support users relying on available services, especially
in case in which they should be inherently secure at the physical level (e.g.,
against unauthorized signal removal/interruption and eavesdropping, since they
are difficult and dangerous). Motivated by the relevant impact of PLC on IoT, in
this chapter we investigate experimentally the performance of IoT systems on
PLC in indoor environments, considering a vendor-provided application tool and a
self-developed Java library. The experimental tests are carried out on both cold
and hot electrical lines, evaluating both fixed-size and variable-length power lines.
Our results show that IoT-oriented PLC can reach a throughput of 8 kbps on a 300
m cold line and of 6 kbps on a 300 m hot line. Further experimental efforts will be
oriented to performance analyses in presence of the adoption of security measures.

Keywords IoT, PLC, Performance, Experimental Analysis, Smart Grid.

§
Corresponding Author
1
Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze,
181/A, 43124, Parma, Italy (IT), [email protected]
2
Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze,
181/A, 43124, Parma, Italy (IT), [email protected]
3
Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze,
181/A, 43124, Parma, Italy (IT), [email protected]
4
Tesmec Automation srl, Via Emilia Ovest, 61 – Frazione Rimale, 43036, Fidenza, Italy (IT),
[email protected]
2

Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank Xiaolin Lu, Wonsoo Kim, Ariton Xhafa,
and Andrew Soukup (Texas Instruments Research Center, Dallas, TX, USA) for the fundamental
support and useful discussions.

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