PLC-to-DSL Interference: Statistical Model and Impact on VDSL2, Vectoring, and G.Fast

Abstract

Newly available standards for broadband access using digital subscriber lines (DSLs) have a high degree of spectrum overlap with home networking technologies using broadband power line communications (BB-PLCs) and this overlap leads to electromagnetic compatibility issues that may cause performance degradation in DSL systems. This paper studies the characteristics of measured PLC-to-DSL interference and presents the novel results on its statistical characterization and impact on the performance of various DSL technologies. The electromagnetic coupling between power line cables and twisted pairs is estimated in the frequency domain from measurements, and a statistical model based on a mixture of two truncated Gaussian distributions is set forth. The proposed statistical model allows the accurate evaluation of the impact of BB-PLC on various DSL technologies in terms of both average and worst case impact on data rate. This paper further provides an extensive assessment of the impact of PLC-to-DSL interference at various loop lengths and for multiple profiles of very-high-speed DSL 2 (VDSL2), vectored VDSL2, and G.fast. The results of this paper confirm that the impact of PLC-to-DSL interference varies with loop length and whether vectoring is used or not. Furthermore, the average impact is found to be generally small but large couplings can lead to substantial degradation of DSL.