An indoor power line transmission control system, includes: a transforming dimming controller (1), which is used to load, onto an electrical signal, a received dimming signal sent by a mobile terminal or input by a user in a touch-control manner, and send the electrical signal loaded with the dimming signal to a dimming driver (2); and the dimming driver, which is electrically connected with the transforming dimming controller and a dimming luminaire (3), and used to read the electrical signal loaded with the dimming signal, and adjust a gray scale of the dimming luminaire according to the read electrical signal. By replacing a normal switch with the transforming dimming controller and by using the dimming driver and transmitting the dimming signal to the dimming luminaire by means of a power line, flexibility of having no wiring, simple extension and smart dimming are realized and energy can be saved.

In a powerline communications (PLC) network having a first node and at least a second node on a PLC channel utilizing a band including a plurality of tones, based on at least one channel quality indicator (CQI), the first node allocates for a tone map response payload only a single (1) power control bit for each of a plurality of subbands having two or more tones. The power control bit indicates a first power state or a second power state. The first node transmits a frame including the tone map response payload to the second node. The second node transmits a frame having boosted signal power for the tones in the subbands which have the first power state compared to a lower signal power for the tones in the subbands which have the second power state.

A method for access to a shared communication medium, referred to as the medium, access to the medium being of the carrier sense multiple access type, wherein an electronic device, in order to be able to send a message over the medium, the message including information representing a message type, waits for a backoff time before checking whether the medium is available to send the message, the backoff time being determined randomly and lying between a minimum backoff time and a maximum backoff time, wherein the maximum backoff time is dependent on the type of message to be sent over the medium by the electronic device.

In a powerline communications (PLC) network having a first node and at least a second node on a PLC channel utilizing a band including a plurality of tones, based on at least one channel quality indicator (CQI), the first node allocates for a tone map response payload only a single (1) power control bit for each of a plurality of subbands having two or more tones. The power control bit indicates a first power state or a second power state. The first node transmits a frame including the tone map response payload to the second node. The second node transmits a frame having boosted signal power for the tones in the subbands which have the first power state compared to a lower signal power for the tones in the subbands which have the second power state.

An embodiment of a method of communicating between a surface processing unit and an energy industry tool includes: receiving a power signal from a power source at an integrated interface device of a communication and processing system, the communication and processing system located between a surface processing unit and an energy industry tool, the interface device including a processor and a variable output power supply; receiving a communication at the processor from a surface processing unit; transmitting a control signal from the processor to the variable output power supply, the control signal including a series of pulses having a duty cycle that is varied to cause the power supply to generate a modulated direct current (DC) output signal having at least one of a frequency and an amplitude that is modulated according to a communication protocol to represent the communication; and transmitting the modulated output signal to a tool.

A communication device in a network may receive a stream of frames from the network, in which each frame includes one or more beacon packets. A communication protocol being used by the network may be identified by tracking a preselected field within a sequence of beacon packets, in which the preselected field varies in a first known manner for a first protocol and in a second known manner for a second protocol. The communication device may then join to the network using the identified communication protocol to transmit and receive data.

A receiving device for receiving PLC signals, including a filtering stage linked to an input of the receiving device and configurable in at least two modes including a default mode, wherein the filtering stage passes at least first PLC signals included in a first frequency band and second PLC signals included in a second frequency band separate from the first frequency band, and a first selection mode, in which the filtering stage passes the first PLC signals and stops the second PLC signals; and a processing circuit linked to the filtering stage and arranged to receive frames of PLC signals, and, for each received frame, to analyse a preamble of the frame, and to dynamically configure the filtering stage in the first selection mode if the frame is a frame of first PLC signals.

A system includes server that performs operations including obtaining, from sensors, measurements of physical parameters related to electrical power transmission and data transfer corresponding to a Broadband over Power Line (BPL) data links and a multi-use power interface configured to be electrically and communicatively coupled to a vehicle via the BPL data links. The operations also include receiving identification and location information, and a timestamp associated with a connector of the multi-use power interface, and then storing the measurements, the identification and location information, and the timestamp. The operations further include detecting a change of the connector, and identifying trends in parameters by comparing the measurements and the identification and location information to historical data. The operations also include predicting, based on correlating the identified trends to the detected change, a pending failure of a network or electrical component, and transmitting an alert indicating the pending failure to a stakeholder.

Systems and methods for efficiently allocating beacon slot among multiple nodes on multiple levels within a power line communication network are described. In various implementations, these systems and methods may be applicable to Power Line Communications (PLC). For example, a method may include performing, by a communications device, assigning beacon transmission times to nodes within the communication device's network. The assigned beacon transmission times comprise a beacon slot and frame pattern. The beacon slot and frame pattern ensure that each node does not transmit a beacon in a beacon slot that is adjacent to a beacon slot assigned to a parent or child node. A beacon transmission slot is reserved for a base node in every frame. The frames may be organized into thirty-two-frame superframes, wherein each frame comprises a base node beacon slot and four switch node beacon slots.

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, supplying an alternating voltage waveform to a winding coupled to a magnetic core of an inductive power supply to regulate an alternating magnetic flux in the magnetic core. The alternating voltage waveform can be generated by selectively enabling one or more switches coupled to a storage device. The subject disclosure may further include configuring the one or more switches according to a configuration during a portion of a period of the alternating voltage waveform, and measuring a characteristic of an alternating current flowing in a conductor coupled to the magnetic core during the portion of the period of the alternating voltage waveform. Other embodiments are disclosed.