Y.H. Ma

Bio: Y.H. Ma is an academic researcher from Nanyang Technological University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Bit error rate & Background noise. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 2 publications receiving 285 citations.

Performance analysis of OFDM systems for broadband power line communications under impulsive noise and multipath effects

Abstract: The impulsive noise and multipath effects are the main reasons to cause bit errors in power line communications. In this paper, the bit error rate (BER) performance of the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system under the impulsive noise and multipath effects are theoretically analyzed in terms of closed form formulas. Through the analysis, it is shown that OFDM can mitigate the adverse effect of the impulsive noise and only the heavily disturbed impulsive noise will interfere the BER performance of the OFDM system. It is also shown that the adverse effect of multipath is more serious than that of impulsive noise. In this paper, the guard interval is used to improve the BER performance of the OFDM system. As the longer guard interval is inefficient in using the signal power, the optimum guard interval that can achieve the best BER performance is studied.

Comparison of CDMA and OFDM Systems for Broadband Power Line Communications

Abstract: Direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems are two options for broadband power line communications. In this paper, a comparison is made between the CDMA and OFDM systems. The bit error rate (BER) performance and the optimum overall data rate of the CDMA and OFDM systems are analyzed and compared, using the criteria of the same bandwidth occupation, the same transmission power for each user, the same total number of users in the system and the same power line channel. The comparison is based on the analytical models that are developed and verified by simulations.

OFDM for Next-Generation Optical Access Networks

Abstract: In this tutorial overview, the principles, advantages, challenges, and practical requirements of optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based optical access are presented, with an emphasis on orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) for application in next-generation passive optical networks (PON). General OFDM principles, including orthogonality, cyclic prefix use, frequency-domain equalization, and multiuser OFDMA are summarized, followed by an overview of various optical OFDM(A) transceiver architectures for next-generation PON. Functional requirements are outlined for high-speed digital signal processors (DSP) and data converters in OFDMA-PON. A techno-economic outlook for such a “software-defined,” DSP-based optical access platform is also provided.

Adaptive Noise Mitigation in Impulsive Environment: Application to Power-Line Communications

Abstract: In this paper, we address the general issue of asynchronous impulsive noise mitigation and its application over coded power-line communications (PLC). As is well known, PLC channels usually suffer from significant degradation due to impulsive interference generated by electrical appliances. The use of a level limiter is a simple and intuitive technique, widely used to mitigate the noxious effect of impulsive noise in these channels. However, the determination of the clipping threshold remains, most of the time, empirical, and the impulse statistics are usually assumed to be known. In a previous study, we proposed an original threshold determination based on signal detection theory, using the well-known false alarm and good detection tradeoff. Here, we further investigate the proposed optimization method in closed form. We compare two tradeoff criteria by means of a receiver operating curves analysis. We clearly show that the resulting decision fits well with encountered bit-error rate performances. We also evaluate the influence of impulsive noise statistics estimation on the performance of the proposed approach. To do so, we assess the robustness of the classical method of moments on Gaussian mixture estimation. It clearly appears that the estimation method is reliable for reasonable values of the impulse occurrence. As one of the main results of this paper, we make a proposal for impulse statistics estimation under ?severe? conditions (i.e., for very rare impulse events, based on impulse detection over corrupted OFDM symbols). Subsequently, we propose a general scheme of automatic impulse mitigation, according to the disturbance ratio of the environment. Finally, the performance of the approach is evaluated over the Home-Plug AV (HPAV) physical layer.

A Markov-Middleton Model for Bursty Impulsive Noise: Modeling and Receiver Design

Abstract: Transmission over channels impaired by impulsive noise, such as in power substations, calls for peculiar mitigation techniques at the receiver side in order to cope with signal deterioration. For these techniques to be effective, a reliable noise model is usually required. One of the widely accepted models is the Middleton Class A, which presents the twofold advantage to be canonical (i.e., invariant of the particular physical source mechanisms) and to exhibit a simple probability density function (PDF) that only depends on three physical parameters, making this model very attractive. However, such a model fails in replicating bursty impulsive noise, where each impulse spans over several consecutive noise samples, as usually observed (e.g., in power substations). Indeed, the Middleton Class A model only deals with amplitude or envelope statistics. On the other hand, for models based on Markov chains, although they reproduce the bursty nature of impulses, the determination of the suitable number of states and the noise distribution associated with each state can be challenging. In this paper, 1) we introduce a new impulsive noise model which is, in fact, a Hidden Markov Model, whose realizations exactly follow a Middleton Class A distribution and 2) we evaluate optimum and suboptimum detections for a coded transmission impaired by the proposed noise model.

Capacity of Overhead Medium Voltage Power Line Communication Channels

Abstract: This paper considers broadband transmission via the overhead medium voltage (MV) grid. The MV broadband over power lines (MV/BPL) channels considered are three-phase overhead MV lines above lossy plane ground. To determine the end-to-end transfer function of any MV/BPL configuration the scattering matrix method is adopted. Various topologies of MV/BPL transmission channels have been studied with regard to their end-to-end signal attenuation and capacity. The analysis and relevant simulations reveal that broadband transmission via MV power lines depends drastically on the MV grid topology and the power constraints imposed to suppress electromagnetic interference to other services. A modification to the fixed spectrum allocation/all-protection model to regulate BPL emission is proposed employing power masks adaptive to locally existing wireless services.