PLC (Power Line Communication) technologies

PLC technologies aim to use electrical wiring to transmit data at high and low speeds. Electrical networks can be seen as a number of interconnected sub-networks, extending inside and outside buildings at different voltage levels. The difference in voltage on the electrical support allows us to define two main families of technology. Outdoor PLC technologies use the medium-voltage (20 kV) and low-voltage (220 V/50 Hz) networks, and are reserved for electrical power operators and suppliers. In contrast, Indoor PLC technologies use the private low-voltage network, allowing free use by the owner of the private network. These two PLC families can circulate information at different data rates, depending on the modulation frequency used. Low-speed PLC technologies use low-frequency modulation in the 3 to 148 kHz frequency band, delivering data rates of less than 50 kbps. High-speed PLC technologies use high-frequency modulation (1 to 30 MHz band), enabling maximum speeds of 200 Mbit/s at the physical layer.

PLC technologies can be used for a wide range of applications, from "low-speed" applications such as home automation, to high-speed applications such as multimedia. Public electricity distribution networks downstream of the national transmission grid can supply all subscribers with electricity, and are the only wired infrastructure, alongside the telephone pair, that can penetrate almost all homes and businesses. Outdoor technologies can take advantage of this specificity to offer broadband access services to their subscribers. However, deployment of this type of service is still at an experimental stage.

Indoor technologies make it easy to deploy home networks on a medium known to the general public and present in every room of a building or home. Once installed, this network offers sufficient bandwidth for real-time and multimedia applications. It can also act as the backbone of a Wi-Fi network. What's more, PLC technologies can be integrated into a wide range...