Energy efficient network protocol architecture for narrowband power line communication networks

This paper presents newly researched and developed network layer protocol for narrowband power line communication (PLC) within the last mile of advanced metering management systems. This communication medium is known for its low data rates and issues with signal propagation and noise inherence. After the network properties are introduced and some of the published PLC routing papers are discussed, our network layer protocol concept is described with emphasis on the routing algorithm and route optimizations. The protocol is designed to optimize the energy efficiency of the PLC network. The next part of the paper briefly describes the network simulator and its model, which was used during the protocol development and debugging. Several networks with constant and dynamic channel parameters were simulated. The results are presented at the end of the paper. Final results proving energy efficiency and its positive influence on the network performance are presented in comparison to the minimum hop count metric.