PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT USING FORWARD ERROR-CORRECTION ON POWER-LINE COMMUNICATION CHANNELS

The use of forward error correction (FEC) coding is investigated, to e nhance communication throughput and reliability on noisy power line ne tworks. Rate one-half self-orthogonal convolutional codes are consider ed. These codes are known to be effective in other environments, and c an be decoded inexpensively in real-time using majority logic decoders . Extensive bit and packet error rate tests were conducted on actual, noisy in-building power line links. Coding gains of 15 dB were observe d at 10(-3) decoded bit error rates. A self-orthogonal (2, 1, 6) convo lutional code with interleaving to degree 7 was particularly effective , and was implemented as a VLSI microelectronic chip. Its use improved data throughput and packet error rates substantially, at data transmi ssion rates of 9,600 bits/s.