Performance Analysis of OFDM Systems in Dispersive Indoor Power Line Channels Inflicting Impulsive Noise

Hidden semi-Markov modelling (HSMM) of the asynchronous impulsive noise encountered in indoor broadband power line communications (PLCs) is investigated by considering the statistical distributions of both the inter-arrival time and the duration of asynchronous impulsive noise components. Then, the bit error ratio (BER) of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems using Q-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is analyzed with the aid of the proposed noise model, when communicating over dispersive indoor power line channels inflicting synchronous impulsive noise in addition to the background noise. Our simulation results confirm the accuracy of the analysis and quantify the impact of various factors on the achievable BER performance. The grave impact of asynchronous impulsive noise on indoor broadband PLCs suggests that efficient techniques have to be designed for mitigating its effects.