Propagation Characteristics of Power Line Communication Signals Along a Power Cable Having Semiconducting Layers

摘要

The propagation characteristics of power line communication (PLC) signals along a single-core power cable having two 3-mm-thick semiconducting layers are studied using the finite-difference time-domain method for solving Maxwell''s equations. It turns out that a PLC signal of frequency 30 MHz suffers significant attenuation particularly when the conductivity of the semiconducting layers is around $sigma$ $=$ 0.001 and 1000 S/m, while it suffers little or less attenuation when $sigma$ is lower than about $hbox{10}^{-5} hbox{S/m}$ or $sigma$ is around 1 S/m. The mechanisms of the significant attenuation around $sigma$ $=$ 0.001 and 1000 S/m are discussed.