Impact of Li-Ion Battery on System's Overall Impedance and Received Signal Strength for Power Line Communication (PLC)

In anticipation of the hybrid utilisation of the radio frequency (RF) wireless transceiver technology embedded in future smart Li-ion battery cells to deliver hybrid links based on power line communication (PLC) and wireless connections, herein we present an empirical high-frequency investigation of the direct current (DC) bus. The focus is to determine, via statistical tools including correlation coefficient (CC), root mean squared error (RMSE) and feature selective validation (FSV) method, the impedance and signal change impact on a possible communication link when fully charged cells are present or completely missing from the bus. Moreover, to establish if technological differences may be accounted for during the empirical experiments, Li-ion cells from two different manufacturers were selected and connected via three subsequent capacitive couplings of 1 mu F, 1 nF and 1 pF. According to a methodical comparison by employing CC, RMSE, and FSV over the measured impedance and signal attenuation, this study has shown that the physical DC network is the dominant impedance at high frequencies and that the signal attenuation on the DC line supports communication in the investigated spectrum. The reported findings are critical for in situ hybrid PLC and wireless communication implementation of BMS for Li-ion systems supported through only one RF transceiver.

Automated summary

This article presents an empirical high-frequency investigation of the direct current bus, focusing on the impact of impedance and signal change on communication links. The study shows that the physical DC network has a dominant impedance at high frequencies and that signal attenuation on the DC line supports communication in the investigated spectrum. These findings are crucial for implementing hybrid PLC and wireless communication in Li-ion battery systems supported by only one RF transceiver.