On the statistical characterization of hybrid PLC-wireless channels

This work aims to increase the understanding and bring the attention to the use of the so-called hybrid power line communication-wireless (PLC-wireless) channel, which is here defined as the equivalent channel that results from the concatenation of PLC and wireless channels, for data communication purposes. In this regard, we discuss about statistical modeling of average channel attenuation, root mean squared delay spread, coherence bandwidth and coherence time, which are among the main features used to characterize data communication channels. Based on a set of measured PLC-wireless channels in in-home facilities, which cover distances lower than 2 m and between 2 m and 6 m, and frequency band between 1.7 MHz and 100 MHz, statistical modeling of the aforementioned set of features is analyzed and compared when several statistical distributions are taken into account. Based on four well-established information criteria, we show the statistical distributions offering the best fits. Furthermore, we show that for the majority of these features, the best two statistical distributions for each of them achieve very similar performance in terms of the chosen information criteria and, as a consequence, both of them may be adopted to statistically model these features.