Fair Competitive Block Channel Assignment for Broadband PLC

Power Line Communications (PLCs) are characterized by a high selectivity of both noise profiles and channel frequency responses which gives importance to the resource allocation problem. Bit-loading has become the acknowledged tool for maximizing system performance over frequency selective channels thanks to its sub-channel-tailored power allocation and has been, therefore, commonly applied in PLC design [1], [2]. In a multiuser scenario, the channel has to be shared by all the accessing nodes so that their ultimate performance will depend on the access policy as well as on the bitloading strategy. Exclusive channel assignment with admission control is a possible solution to enable high quality multimedia applications over PLC.