Abstract This paper presents measurements at a mock-up medium voltage network to verify the feasibility of Broadband Power Line Communication (BPLC). We use the data extracted within the frequency range 2 − 30 MHz to characterize a MIMO PLC network using different phase combinations, defining the best and worst use case scenarios. The empirical data shows that not only phases directly connected for input-output can be used, but also that we can exploit the coupling between phases to transmit and receive data, therefore creating a dynamic PLC network which will depend on the characteristics of the power grid. By making use of transmission line theory, we also demonstrate how we can mitigate the reflections by measuring the input impedance of the network to allow better use of the bandwidth available for BPLC operation.

Abstract Here we report a simple analytical technique to model a Mach-Zehnder fiber optic interferometric sensors that allow us to predict and calculate via computer simulations parameters that are not easily obtained experimentally. This model was calibrated and compared with experimental data using a 120 mm sensor for measurements of temperature, refractive index and water level. For instance, we were able to calculate the effects on the cladding effective index caused by the variation of those physical parameters. Moreover, this analysis could further our understanding of such sensors and allow us to make predictions about their use in different applications and even their behavior with different sensing lengths.

Abstract Nowadays, communication and networking technologies are essential for Oil & Gas industries in order to guarantee reliability, safety and low costs in the producing process. Information access and commands and set-points transmission from/to automation systems are challenging tasks mainly due to distributed production areas and hostile environments. This paper presents a field trial of broadband power line communication over an overhead medium voltage grid as a data transport employing 200 Mb/s BPL modems. Throughput, frequency response, physical speed and latency are some of the investigated network parameters. Experimental results obtained after propagation through 1.63 km of a multipath MV power grid reveal the viability of the BPL technology as an access network for video and automation data transport in onshore Oil & Gas industries.

With the increase in demand to Backbone networks, one became fundamental the application of new telecommunication technologies for efficient use of devices and optical links, such as xPSK modulations with dual polarization, dispersion compensating fibers, coherent detection and digital processing signals. Thus, network planning using analytical models have been proposed in the last years for this purpose. In this paper we propose the use of numerical simulations in wavelength-division multiplexing networks planning via a novel iterative method with high-performance processing, which does an analysis of the quality of transmission in transparent networks.

In this paper, we propose a hybrid methodology based on Graph-Coloring and Genetic Algorithm (GA) to solve the Wavelength Assignment (WA) problem in optical networks, impaired by physical layer effects. Our proposal was developed for a static scenario where the physical topology and traffic matrix are known a priori. First, we used fixed shortest-path routing to attend demand requests over the physical topology and the graph-coloring algorithm to minimize the number of necessary wavelengths. Then, we applied the genetic algorithm to solve WA. The GA finds the wavelength activation order on the wavelengths grid with the aim of reducing the Cross-Phase Modulation (XPM) effect; the variance due to the XPM was used as a function of fitness to evaluate the feasibility of the selected WA solution. Its performance is compared with the First-Fit algorithm in two different scenarios, and has shown a reduction in blocking probability up to 37.14% when considered both XPM and residual dispersion effects and up to 71.42% when only considered XPM effect. Moreover, it was possible to reduce by 57.14% the number of wavelengths.

A novel method is presented to design the configuration of pumping lasers of Raman amplifiers using a multi-objective particle swarm optimizer. The goal is to obtain the pump laser wavelengths and powers that maximize the amplifier on-off gain, while maintaining the flatness of the gain over the used bandwidth. We used an algorithm called Multiple Objective Particle Swarm Optimization with Crowding Distance and Roulette Wheel to generate the non-dominated solutions, considering the average on-off gain and the ripple of the amplifier over the transmission bandwidth as the objectives in the optimization process. We designed amplifiers using three, four and five pump lasers. The experimental results showed that our proposal was able to design Raman amplifiers with a gain ripple lower than 0.2 dB and with an average on-off gain around 16.7 dB, when 20 signal channels and a total pump power of 1 W were considered. Moreover, we demonstrated that it is possible to allow the decision maker to choose among many possible non-dominated solutions depending on the application requirements.