A TOKEN PASSING NETWORK FOR POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS

The AC powerline is the ideal communications medium for enabling control and monitoring applications in the home. This paper describes a low-level network architecture for reliable powerline communications, using a robust token passing protocol supporting network access and device response under worst-case powerline impairments. The approach is hierarchical, building upon a spread spectrum physical layer enabling short-duration powerline transmissions and adaptation to changing powerline conditions, and upon a packet structure designed for error correction.