Effects of Surge Protection Devices on Performances of PLC Systems

This paper discusses the application and the effect of the electric surge protection device (SPD) in the power line communication channel. The comparative analysis of the effect is carried out based on the performance of the power line communication (PLC) system. The SPDs used for the laboratory experiment are categorized into different types of classes depending on the surge protection level. Various combinations of the SPD with different classes are tested to accommodate the real field environment. The transmission line length is also considered as a test parameter. The OFDM based data transmission system is assumed for the data throughput performance test for given channel conditions. Experiment results show that the effects on the PLC network vary depending on classes and locations of the installed SPDs as well as the channel length between the transmitter and the receiver end. The result confirms that systematic SPD installation requirements should be set up to maintain the stable performance of the data transmission system and the SPDs which coexist in the same power transmission lines