Specifications & User Guidelines
The latest published reference version of the G3-PLC Specification is available on the ITU website: https://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-G.9903.
Please note Amendment 1 includes the hybrid profile as Annex H of G.9903.
User Guidelines
To help adopters properly integrate the G3-PLC protocol stack in products and systems a set of user guidelines has been developed. Several user guidelines are already available, others are still under development and will be published later.
User guidelines developed or under development so far are the following:
1. PLC introduction for non-experts
Executive Summary
This paper is an introductory document to the G3-PLC technology and precedes a series of user guidelines published by the G3-PLC Alliance, intended to help end-users and manufacturers in implementing and deploying G3-PLC products
In this document, the G3-PLC protocol stack and its main characteristics will be briefly presented as well as an introduction to the G3-PLC Alliance and its certification program.
The complete document is available for download here:
2. Introduction to the Hybrid PLC&RF Profile
Executive Summary
This paper introduces the G3-PLC Hybrid PLC&RF Profile which comes as an extension to the existing G3-PLC protocol stack. In this document, the main features and principles of the hybrid stack will be outlined.
The complete document is available for download here:
G3-PLC_Alliance_Introduction_to_the_Hybrid_PLC_and_RF_Profile_1.0_PUB_June2021
3. PHY layer guidelines
under development
4. Bootstrapping guidelines
under development
5. IPv6 route establishment guidelines
Executive Summary
By design the G3-PLC communication stack allows native support of IPv6, which grants end-user flexibility to fulfill business requirements when choosing the appropriate higher layers (ISO/OSI transport and application layers). This key feature also secures G3-PLC infrastructures in the long term, thanks to the scalability and future application compatibility provided by IPv6
This document provides guidelines on how to make G3-PLC devices directly accessible over IPv6, by having one node acting as an IPv6 border router. In this document, we will assume that the border is the PAN-Coordinator, which is representative of the typical use case. This document will focus on unicast routing.
Optimisations are also proposed, allowing to reduce message size by using the full potential of the IPv6 header-compression mechanism.
In an annex, fundamental concepts related to IPv6 are reminded to provide some technical basics to the reader.
The complete document is available for download here for members with access rights.
6. Security guidelines
under development
7. Attribute Usage guidelines
Executive Summary
G3-PLC provides a significant number of attributes which may be used to tweak the G3-PLC protocol stack behaviour to better fulfill specific use cases or to better match local particularities. Yet changing the value of an attribute or doing so for a combination of attributes can lead to sub-optimal performance and even malfunction. This document provides guidelines for the configuration of G3-PLC attributes covering physical, MAC and adaptation layers.
The complete document is available for download here for members with access rights.
8. Upper layer integration with G3-PLC
Executive Summary
Using communication technologies designed for IoT, smart metering or command & control application use cases, such as low-data rate wireless or narrowband PLC technologies require some knowledge for proper integration with higher layers (network, transport and application layers in particular) to guarantee optimal performance.
This document provides guidelines making recommendations on the following aspects of the G3-PLC protocol stack integrated in a complete application profile:
– Managing a G3-PLC network for a PAN-Coordinator,
– Joining procedure for a PAN-Device,
– Route discovery and maintenance,
– Network access patterns,
– Upper layer protocols.
The complete document is available for download here for members with access rights.
9. Important considerations for G3-PLC certification
Executive Summary
This document provides some important considerations for G3-PLC Certification. The objective of this document is to make manufacturers aware of certain aspects related to the G3-PLC certification early in their product development process. When manufacturers are not aware of these aspects, it may lead to rework after the manufacturers came to the test laboratories for certification.
The complete document is available for download here:
G3-PLC_User_guidelines_certification_v1.0