Technical Trends in High-Speed Power Line Communication

High-speed power line communication (PLC) can transmit an information signal of several hundred megabits per second over the power lines that transport electrical energy. Because this system employs unmodified existing transmission lines and the signal can be accessed through the simple interface of an ordinary electrical outlet, it promises to serve as the most effective transmission system for supporting information home appliances. For high-speed PLC to become practical requires that the frequencies used be expanded to 30MHz, a frequency band is already used by many wireless communication systems. Thus, shared use with those systems is the most important problem. This paper introduces technical trends related to that issue.