The injection of random or periodic noise onto the low voltage Narrowband PLC are majorly caused by several power electronics appliances or devices on the network most especially the ones with switching circuits. Noise injected are non-Gaussian but impulsive in nature.
Silicon control rectifier, switching mode power supplies found in light dimmers and DC to DC converters are sources of impulse noise. impulse noise are also caused by transient switching in lights, switching thermostats in cookers and fridges. Other sources includes TVs and monitors. etc.
It is important to clarify that over the low voltage PLC channel, two main groups of impulsive noise are present. The periodic impulsive noise and the aperiodic impulsive noise. The first category can be divided into two: The periodic synchronous impulsive noise compose of a train of impulse with the frequency been a
multiple of the mains frequency, due to its sources, which are rectifiers, laptops, light dimers, desktop computers and LCD monitors; and the periodic asynchronous impulsive noise with a frequency independent of the mains frequency. It is generated mostly by the switch mode power supplies (SMPS) connected to the
network. The second category, the aperiodic impulsive noise is created by isolated activities on the power network such as the on/off of switches and breakers, and the plug/unplug of appliances.