On the Exploitation of Admittance Measurements for Wired Network Topology Derivation

The knowledge of the topology of a wired network is often of fundamental importance. For instance, in the context of Power Line Communications (PLC) networks it is helpful to implement data routing strategies, while in power distribution networks and Smart Micro Grids (SMG) it is required for grid monitoring and for power flow management. In this paper, we use the transmission line theory to shed new light and to show how the topological properties of a wired network can be found exploiting admittance measurements at the nodes. An analytic proof is reported to show that the derivation of the topology can be done in complex networks under certain assumptions. We also analyze the effect of the network background noise on admittance measurements. In this respect, we propose a topology derivation algorithm that works in the presence of noise. We finally analyze the performance of the algorithm using values that are typical of power line distribution networks.Comment: A version of this manuscript has been submitted to the IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement for possible publication. The paper consists of 8 pages, 11 figures, 1 tabl

State-of-the-art in Power Line Communications: from the Applications to the Medium

In recent decades, power line communication has attracted considerable attention from the research community and industry, as well as from regulatory and standardization bodies. In this article we provide an overview of both narrowband and broadband systems, covering potential applications, regulatory and standardization efforts and recent research advancements in channel characterization, physical layer performance, medium access and higher layer specifications and evaluations. We also identify areas of current and further study that will enable the continued success of power line communication technology.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. Special Issue on Power Line Communications and its Integration with the Networking Ecosystem. 201

GREEND: An Energy Consumption Dataset of Households in Italy and Austria

Home energy management systems can be used to monitor and optimize consumption and local production from renewable energy. To assess solutions before their deployment, researchers and designers of those systems demand for energy consumption datasets. In this paper, we present the GREEND dataset, containing detailed power usage information obtained through a measurement campaign in households in Austria and Italy. We provide a description of consumption scenarios and discuss design choices for the sensing infrastructure. Finally, we benchmark the dataset with state-of-the-art techniques in load disaggregation, occupancy detection and appliance usage mining