A loosely synchronous-coded OFDM system for power-line communications in home networks

High-speed data communication is critical for home networks to support the increasing needs of online multimedia entertainment. Power-line communication (PLC) presents a 'no new wires' solution for home networks. However, power line is a troublesome and noisy platform for home networks. And the traditional approach with PLC is interference-limited and has a small bandwidth. In this paper we propose a new scheme of orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) to provide better noise-limited PLC networks. This schema is based on loosely synchronous (LS) codes with very nice correlations. Construction criteria of LS codes used in the proposed system are provided and discussed. The capacity properties and spectral efficiency of LS coded OFDM systems over PLC channels are also studied in this paper. We show that the proposed LS coded OFDM can efficiently achieve the diversity provided by power line channels. Such a schema can be employed in PLC to increase data throughput, system capacity and spectral efficiency in home networks.