Abstract
Due to global energy concerns, much emphasis is placed on reducing the energy usage of power line communications (PLC). PLC, however, presents many significant challenges, such as narrowband interference, that makes the energy efficiency reduced. In this paper, a green data transmission system is proposed that improves the energy efficiency of PLC by using spectrum sensing techniques. Furthermore, a performance optimization algorithm is presented that maximizes the energy efficiency of PLC by carefully choosing the optimal spectrum sensing duration and the optimal transmit powers. Numerical results verify that the proposed system can mitigate the effects of interference, with improved energy efficiency. © 2012 ACM.