volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

Powerline communication (PLC) noise is the main cause of reduced performance and reliability of the communication channel. The major source of these noise bursts, which distort and degrade the communication signal, is the arbitrary plugging in and unplugging of electric devices from the electrical network. It is therefore important to perform statistical modelling of the PLC noise characteristics to enable the development and optimisation of reliable PLC systems. This paper presents the Variational Bayesian (VB) Gaussian Mixture (GM) modelling of the amplitude distribution of the indoor broadband PLC noise. In the proposed model, a fully Bayesian treatment is employed where the parameters of the GM model are assumed to be random variables. Consequently, prior distributions over the parameters are introduced. The VB criterion is used to determine the optimal number of components where the Bayesian information criterion emerges as a limiting case. To find the parameters of the GM components, the variational-expectation maximisation algorithm is employed. Measurements from different indoor PLC environments are then used to validate the model. Thereafter, performance analysis is carried out, and the VB framework is compared to the Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimate method. It is observed that while the ML model performs better when the amplitude distribution contains multiple peaks, the VB framework offers high accuracy and good generalization to the measured data and is thus effective in modelling the amplitude distribution of the PLC noise.

1. Asiyo, M. O. and T. J. Afullo, "Analysis of bursty impulsive noise in low-voltage indoor power line communication channels: Local scaling behaviour," SAIEE Africa Research Journal, Vol. 108, No. 3, 98-107, 2017.
doi:10.23919/SAIEE.2017.8531521 Google Scholar

2. Benaissa, A., A. Abdelmalek, and M. Feham, "Improved reliability of power line communication under alpha-stable noise," 2017 5th International Conference on Electrical Engineering | Boumerdes (ICEE-B), 1-5, 2017.
doi:10.23919/SAIEE.2018.8538337 Google Scholar

3. Awino, S. O., T. J. O. Afullo, M. Mosalaosi, and P. O. Akuon, "Time series analysis of impulsive noise in power line communication (plc) networks," SAIEE Africa Research Journal, Vol. 109, No. 4, 237-249, 2018. Google Scholar

4. Awino, S., T. Afullo, M. Mosalaosi, and P. Akuon, "Measurements and statistical modelling for time behaviour of power line communication impulsive noise," International Journal on Communications Antenna and Propagation, Vol. 9, No. 4, 236-246, 2019.
doi:10.1109/ICEEOT.2016.7755376 Google Scholar

5. Prakash, S., A. Bansal, and S. K. Jha, "Performance analysis of narrowband plc system under gaussian laplacian noise model," 2016 International Conference on Electrical, Electronics, and Optimization Techniques (ICEEOT), 3597-3600, 2016.
doi:10.1109/15.990732 Google Scholar

6. Zimmermann, M. and K. Dostert, "Analysis and modeling of impulsive noise in broad-band powerline communications," IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility, Vol. 44, No. 1, 249-258, 2002.
doi:10.1109/TEMC.1984.304217 Google Scholar

7. Vines, R. M., H. J. Trissell, L. J. Gale, and J. B. O'neal, "Noise on residential power distribution circuits," IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility, Vol. 26, No. 4, 161-168, 1984.
doi:10.1109/TPWRD.2005.844349 Google Scholar

8. Meng, H., Y. Guan, and S. Chen, "Modeling and analysis of noise effects on broadband power-line communications," IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol. 20, No. 2, 630-637, 2005.
doi:10.23919/PIERS.2018.8597885 Google Scholar

9. Awino, S. O., T. J. Afullo, M. Mosalaosi, and P. O. Akuon, "Empirical identification of narrowband interference in broadband PLC networks at the receiver," 2018 Progress in Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS-Toyama), 2160-2164, 2018.
doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2923321 Google Scholar

10. Tonello, A. M., N. A. Letizia, D. Righini, and F. Marcuzzi, "Machine learning tips and tricks for power line communications," IEEE Access, Vol. 7, 82 434-82 452, 2019. Google Scholar

11. Bishop, C. M. and N. M. Nasrabadi, Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning, Vol. 4, No. 4, Springer, 2006.
doi:10.1109/TCOMM.2009.07.070638

12. Fertonani, D. and G. Colavolpe, "On reliable communications over channels impaired by bursty impulse noise," IEEE Transactions on Communications, Vol. 57, No. 7, 2024-2030, 2009.
doi:10.1109/TPWRD.2013.2273942 Google Scholar

13. Ndo, G., F. Labeau, and M. Kassouf, "A Markov-Middleton model for bursty impulsive noise: Modeling and receiver design," IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol. 28, No. 4, 2317-2325, 2013.
doi:10.1049/el:20045825 Google Scholar

14. Suraweera, H. A. and J. Armstrong, "Noise bucket effect for impulse noise in OFDM," Electronics Letters, Vol. 40, No. 18, 1156-1157, 2004.
doi:10.23919/SAIEE.2015.8531938 Google Scholar

15. Shongwe, T., A. J. H. Vinck, and H. C. Ferreira, "A study on impulse noise and its models," SAIEE Africa Research Journal, Vol. 106, No. 3, 119-131, 2015.
doi:10.1109/COMST.2020.3033748 Google Scholar

16. Bai, T., H. Zhang, J. Wang, C. Xu, M. Elkashlan, A. Nallanathan, and L. Hanzo, "Fifty years of noise modeling and mitigation in power-line communications," IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, Vol. 23, No. 1, 41-69, 2020.
doi:10.1109/PIERS-Spring46901.2019.9017860 Google Scholar

17. Awino, S., T. J. O. Afullo, M. Mosalaosi, and P. O. Akuon, "GMM estimation and BER of bursty impulsive noise in low-voltage PLC networks," 2019 Photonics & Electromagnetics Research Symposium --- Spring (PIERS-Spring), 1828-1834, 2019.
doi:10.15866/irecap.v12i4.22089 Google Scholar

18. Chelangat, F. and T. Afullo, "Low-voltage plc noise modelling," International Journal on Communications Antenna and Propagation (IRECAP), Vol. 12, 237, August 2022. Google Scholar

19. Baroud, D., A. Hasan, and T. Shongwe, "A study towards implementing various articial neural networks for signals classication and noise detection in ofdm/plc channels," 2020 12th International Symposium on Communication Systems, Networks and Digital Signal Processing (CSNDSP), 1-6, 2020. Google Scholar

20. Nassar, M., K. Gulati, Y. Mortazavi, and B. L. Evans, "Statistical modeling of asynchronous impulsive noise in powerline communication networks," 2011 IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference-GLOBECOM 2011. IEEE, 1-6, 2011.
doi:10.1109/TPWRD.2014.2365579 Google Scholar

21. Liu, S., F. Yang, and J. Song, "An optimal interleaving scheme with maximum time-frequency diversity for PLC systems," IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol. 31, No. 3, 1007-1014, 2014. Google Scholar

22. Attias, H., "A variational Bayesian framework for graphical models," Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, Vol. 12, 1999. Google Scholar

23. Corduneanu, A. and C. M. Bishop, "Variational Bayesian model selection for mixture distributions," Articial intelligence and Statistics, Vol. 2001, 27-34, Morgan Kaufmann Waltham, MA, 2001.
doi:10.1109/TSMCB.2006.872273 Google Scholar

24. Nasios, N. and A. Bors, "Variational learning for gaussian mixture models," IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part B (Cybernetics), Vol. 36, No. 4, 849-862, 2006. Google Scholar

25. Penny, W. and S. Roberts, "Variational bayes for 1-dimensional mixture models," Techn. Rep. PARG-00-2, Dept. of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, 2000. Google Scholar

26. Valente, F. and C. Wellekens, "Variational Bayesian speaker clustering," ODYSSEY04 --- The Speaker and Language Recognition Workshop, 2004.
doi:10.1109/TSP.2002.801921 Google Scholar

27. Roberts, S. and W. Penny, "Variational Bayes for generalized autoregressive models," IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, Vol. 50, No. 9, 2245-2257, 2002. Google Scholar

28. Samakande, T., T. Shongwe, A. S. de Beer, and H. C. Ferreira, "The effect of coupling circuits on impulsive noise in power line communication," 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Power Line Communications and its Applications (ISPLC), 1-5, 2018. Google Scholar

29. Tina, J. A. W., A. J. Snyders, and H. C. Ferreira, "Implementation of a gap recorder for measuring impulsive noise error distributions in power line communications using the Fritchman model," 2012 IEEE International Symposium on Power Line Communications and Its Applications, 374-379, 2012.
doi:10.1109/PEOCO.2014.6814439 Google Scholar

30. Emleh, A., A. S. de Beer, H. C. Ferreira, and A. J. H. Vinck, "The influence of fluorescent lamps with electronic ballast on the low voltage PLC network," 2014 IEEE 8th International Power Engineering and Optimization Conference (PEOCO2014), 276-280, 2014. Google Scholar

31. Emleh, A., A. De Beer, H. Ferreira, and A. H. Vinck, "The impact of the cfl lamps on the power-line communications channel," 2013 IEEE 17th International Symposium on Power Line Communications and Its Applications, 225-229, IEEE, 2013.
doi:10.1109/TPWRD.2015.2452939 Google Scholar

32. Antoniali, M., F. Versolatto, and A. M. Tonello, "An experimental characterization of the plc noise at the source," IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol. 31, No. 3, 1068-1075, 2016. Google Scholar

33. Tlich, M., H. Chaouche, A. Zeddam, and F. Gauthier, "Impulsive noise characterization at source," 2008 1st IFIP Wireless Days, 1-6, 2008. Google Scholar

34. Ying, Y., "A note on variational Bayesian inference,", https://www.albany.edu/ yy298919/realvb.pdf, 2009.
doi:10.1109/TCOM.1984.1096037 Google Scholar

35. Vastola, K., "Threshold detection in narrow-band non-gaussian noise," IEEE Transactions on Communications, Vol. 32, No. 2, 134-139, 1984. Google Scholar

Ms. Florence Chelangat

Prof. Thomas Joachim Odhiambo Afullo