Systems and methods for carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) protocols for power line communications (PLC) are described. In some embodiments, a method may include performing a virtual carrier sensing operation and, in response to the virtual carrier sensing operation indicating that a communication channel is idle, calculating a contention window. The method may also include performing a physical carrier sensing operation subsequent to the virtual carrier sensing operation, the physical carrier sensing operation based, at least in part, upon the contention window. In response to the physical carrier sensing operation indicating that the communication channel is idle, the method may then include transmitting data over the channel. In other embodiments, another method may include determining that a data transmission is a unicast transmission and that an acknowledgement message has not been received. The method may further include incrementing a backoff parameter and repeating one or more carrier sense operations.

A network switch with: Power-over-Ethernet ports to connect to twisted-pair wires and transmit signals with a data packet comprising a target address and direct-current electric power via the twisted-pair wires; a first Powerline Communication port to connect to a pair of line wires supplying alternating-current electric power and to transmit signals with a data packet via the pair of line wires; a controller; and a memory storing target addresses by data packet. The controller may: receive a signal from one of the Power-over-Ethernet ports or the Powerline Communication port; demodulate the inbound signal; produce a data packet from the demodulated inbound signal; determine the target address of the data packet; look up the determined target address; produce an outbound signal modulated for the target port; and send the modulated outbound signal to the target port.

A Power-Line Communication (PLC) receiver has a filter, a time domain processor, a frequency-domain processor, and a forward-error-correction decoder. A narrow-band frequency detector attached to the frequency-domain processor examines the frequency-domain signal for a highest-power sub-carrier frequency. This highest power is compared to an average power of all other sub-carriers and a narrow-band interferer is detected when the highest power is significantly above the average. When the interferer is detected N times in a time period, a control layer adds this sub-carrier frequency to a removed list and recalculates filter coefficients to add a notch filter at the frequencies of the removed list. Updated filter coefficients are loaded into the filter to implement notch filters. When the current power of a sub-carrier signal on the removed list falls significantly below the average power, the sub-carrier is deleted from the removed list and coefficients recalculated to remove the notch filter.

A microelectronic assembly may include a first microelectronic device, a second microelectronic device, a first signal link, a second signal link, and a first power connection. The first microelectronic device may include a first interface powered at a first voltage. The second microelectronic device may include a second interface powered at a second voltage. The first signal link may supply a first signal at the first voltage from the first interface to the second interface. The second signal link may supply a second signal at the second voltage from the second interface to the first interface. The first power connection may supply a first reference signal at the first voltage from the first interface to the second interface.

A method for transmitting data by using a power line. The method includes: setting i=1 and j=1; receiving an i-th zero crossing signal at a time point ti, and determining, based on the i-th zero crossing signal, a start time when synchronization signals of a j-th data packet are transmitted, the start time when the synchronization signals of the j-th data packet are transmitted being ti+t; transmitting the synchronization signals of the j-th data packet at the start time when the synchronization signals of the j-th data packet are transmitted; transmitting data signals of the j-th data packet in sequence; and determining whether j is equal to M; when j is not equal to M, continuing a data transmission; and when j is equal to M, ending the data transmission, M being a number of data packets into which data to be transmitted is divided.

An interface circuit, a string, and a system that are applied to power line communication, to lower device specifications, includes: an inverter, an optimizer group, a capacitor, a magnetic ring, power lines, and a signal line. An optimizer in the optimizer group is configured to adjust a size of a direct current output by a photovoltaic module connected to the optimizer. Two ends of the signal line passing through the magnetic ring are connected to the inverter. Two ends of a power line passing through the magnetic ring are respectively connected to the capacitor and the optimizer group. By using the foregoing interface circuit, a high voltage of a direct current output by the optimizer group is prevented from being introduced into the inverter, thereby reducing a specification requirement of a device such as a capacitor.

A power amplifier with supply switching is provided. The power amplifier detects a magnitude of an outgoing broadband communication signal and determines whether the magnitude exceeds a predetermined voltage threshold. The power amplifier applies a first gain to the outgoing broadband communication signal using a first voltage supply rail when it is determined that the magnitude exceeds the predetermined voltage threshold and a second gain using a second voltage supply rail that is smaller than the first voltage supply rail when it is determined that the magnitude does not exceed the predetermined voltage threshold. The power amplifier produces an output signal from the outgoing broadband communication signal with the applied first gain or the applied second gain, wherein a current of the outgoing broadband communication signal is switched between the first voltage supply rail and the second voltage supply rail in response to the magnitude being detected.

An inspection apparatus for use in wellbores in the oil and gas industries relates in general to the field of transmission of data between downhole module in a wellbore and a controlling module at the surface. The invention provides a method and apparatus for determining analog filter parameters for an analog front end comprising a plurality of filter stages receiving signals from a telemetry module, by repeating the steps of; receiving a signal of a known frequency and processing said signal by determining the magnitude of the frequency of the received signal until a plurality of signals have been received and processed; calculating an optimum set of filter parameters in dependence upon the measured frequency magnitudes and a predefined set of filter stage frequency responses.

A lighting system includes one or more methods and systems to control an input switching stage of a power converter to provide power for a lamp and modulate a line current supplied to the power converter to carry data related to a state of the lamp. In at least one embodiment, a single controller consolidates the functions of controlling an input stage of the power converter and communicating to an external device by modulating the line current supplied to the power converter to carry data related to a state of the lamp. The particular type of current modulation and communication protocol utilized by the consolidated power conversion-communication controller is a matter of design choice. In at least one embodiment, the lamp includes one or more electronic light sources, such as one or more light emitting diodes (LEDs) and/or one or more compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs).

A system and method for establishing communication between a controller and a plurality of inverters comprises determining a response time window length and broadcasting a response request to the array of inverters that includes the response time window length. Each inverter, in response to receiving the response requests, transmits a response to the controller at a randomly determined response time within the response time window. In response to receiving an acknowledgement from the controller, the responding inverter may ignore subsequent response requests. The controller may adjust the response time window and broadcasts the new response time window until no inverter response is received for a pre-determined number of response time windows.