Title |
Impedance Measurement and Matching Technique for Medium-Voltage Powerline Communication |
Keywords |
Power Line Communications ; Impedance Measurement ; Impedance Matching ; Medium Voltage |
Abstract |
Currently, high data rate PLC(Power Line Communications), up to 100 Mbps, which use frequency bandwidth between 2 MHz and 30 MHz is investigated very hard, and commercial PLC modem for low voltage powerline network (indoor) is coming soon into communication market. For the purpose of developing a fit communication system which has little distortion of signal and attenuation, it is surely necessary to know about channel environments of powerline. Especially, the impedance measurement of the powerline and impedance matching are very important. As is known, since medium-voltage powerline (22.9 ㎸) is still working, it is not so simple to measure the powerline impedance. In our study, a portable impedance measurement equipment is developed. It consists of coupling capacitor, a drain coil and impedance matching transformer. The equipment is easily connected to medium voltage line and impedance of power line is measured using a network analyzer. Also, measurement results are used for impedance matching of PLC signal. In fact, matching transformer with several different impedances are used. The matching transformer is connected between coupling capacitor and signal port. In this paper, the developed portable impedance measurement equipment and impedance measurement results are presented. Also impedance matching technique using matching transformers will be explained. We showed the result of the improved performance by the impedance matching. |