Two-Stage Single-Relay Channel Model for In-Home Broadband PLC Systems

This paper discusses the two-stage single-relay channel model for in-home broadband power line communication links with up to two hops. This channel model consists of the concatenation of two single-relay channels that can result in eight configurations; however, only five of them are analyzed in this work since they cover up to one relay availability. In this context, a discussion addressing both amplify-and-forward and decode-and-forward cooperative protocols at relay node and maximal ratio combining at destination node is carried out. As the power line channels are frequency selective, the attenuation profile increases along with both distance and frequency, and the additive noise is colored, we discuss achievable data rate analyses using a data set covering the frequency band from 1.7 to 100 MHz, under sum power constraint. Based on the attained results, we state that the two-stage single-relay channel model is the best option for in-home broadband power line communication systems when the source-to-destination link is severely degraded (e.g., high signal attenuation and/or high-power noise presence), while the two-hop channel model is more appropriate when the channel degradation is not severe. Moreover, we show that the single-relay channel model may be remarkably outperformed by the two-stage single-relay channel model.