Carrier Communication over Power Lines

Carrier communication over power lines, like carrier traffic over postal lines, has a tradition of more than 40 years. It has become a vital element in electric system operation. Being restricted to power networks, it has a comparatively limited scope. Nevertheless, great efforts are expended on technical advancement to keep pace with the progress achieved both in power and in communication engineering. In Europe alone, this development is carried on by some twenty different companies. To this must be added numerous manufacturers in many other parts of the world. As a result a wide variety of technical viewpoints have gone into equipment design, a fact which is also borne out by many publications in engineering journals. This book has been written with the purpose of familiarizing the men in the field with the fundamental concepts on which this technique and its practical application are based. The physical and the electrical characteristics as well as the operating principle of the equipment involved have been described in a general way. For the sake of clarity, the author refrained from giving a detailed account of special versions. Another reason against an exhaustive treat- ment is the rapid development in semi-conductors which entails contin- ual changes in circuit design.