Technology

Adapting Systel PLC modem embedded in the IDC2000 to other protocols

The following provides a brief summary of the PLC modem and the possibility of its adaptation to customized protocols:

The carrier frequency can be increased up to 200 kHz changing two or three coefficients of the programmable frequency dividers.
The DALI protocol or others may be used instead of Systel's PLC-Link Communication Protocol using suitable software taking into account the fact that the data rate for a 200KHz carrier will be not more than 4000 bit/sec and of course for 100KHz 2000 bit/sec.
The signal synchronization can be performed not only using zero-cross, as in the PLC-Link implementation, but using preamble as well. The message duration will increase in this case. In this context you can enhance the zero cross detection by taking advantage of the Digital PLL (DPPL) module embedded in the IDC2000. See following specifications:

DPLL Testing Report

Lock-In (Phase Frequency Detector)
Proportional Gain = 1/4
Integration Gain = 1/32
Initial Center Frequency = 55 Hz
Locking Range : 40Hz to 80Hz
Optimal gains are : 1/4 Proportional, 1/32 Integral
Locking Time : 0.3 Seconds

Phase Shift Step Tests

Gains		Time Constant
Proportional	Integral	Time Constant
1/8	1/128	0.7 Sec
1/16	1/512	1.5 Sec
1/32	1/2048	3 sec
1/64	1/8192	6 Sec

Tracking Jitter: approx. 10uS

Related Documents

SYTRL400-A PLC test report:
A test report presenting the characterization test results of the Power Line Carrier (PLC) Modem embedded in the IDC2000 ICs family. This report also includes the results of the communication test performed using the PLC transceivers in the wall control and the ballast reference designs of Systel's Lighting Evaluation Kit based on the IDC2000 ICs. This report also describes the test method applied and includes the Bit Error Rate (BER) versus S/N achieved in the communication test. Date: November 5, 2006

Application Note SYANL404:
PLC-Link™ Power Line Carrier Communication for a Building Control based on IDC2000 devices.