This review paper reveals the broadband potential of overhead and underground low-voltage (LV) and medium-voltage (MV)\r\nbroadband over power lines (BPL) networks associated withmultiple-inputmultiple-output (MIMO) technology.Thecontribution\r\nof this reviewpaper is fourfold. First, the unified value decomposition (UVD)modal analysis is introduced.UVDmodal analysis is a\r\nnewtechnique that unifies eigenvalue decomposition (EVD) and singular value decomposition (SVD)modal analyses achieving the\r\ncommon handling of traditional SISO/BPL and upcoming MIMO/BPL systems. The validity of UVD modal analysis is examined\r\nby comparing its simulation results with those of other exact analytical models. Second, based on the proposed UVD modal\r\nanalysis, theMIMOchannels of overhead and underground LVandMVBPL networks (distribution BPL networks) are investigated\r\nwith regard to their inherent characteristics. Towards that direction, an extended collection of well-validated metrics from the\r\ncommunications literature, such as channel attenuation, average channel gain (ACG), root-mean-square delay spread (RMS-DS),\r\ncoherence bandwidth (CB), cumulative capacity, capacity complementary cumulative distribution function (CCDF), and capacity\r\ngain (GC), is first applied in overhead and underground MIMO/LV and MIMO/MV BPL channels and systems. It is found that\r\nthe results of the aforementioned metrics portfolio depend drastically on the frequency, the power grid type (either overhead or\r\nunderground, either LV or MV), the MIMOscheme configuration properties, the MTL configuration, the physical properties of the\r\ncables used, the end-to-end distance, and the number, the electrical length, and the terminations of the branches encountered along\r\nthe end-to-end BPL signal propagation. Third, three interesting findings concerning the statistical properties of MIMO channels of\r\ndistribution BPL networks are demonstrated, namely, (i) the ACG, RMS-DS, and cumulative capacity lognormal distributions;\r\n(ii) the correlation between RMS-DS and ACG; and (iii) the correlation between RMS-DS and CB. By fitting the numerical\r\nresults, unified regression distributions appropriate for MIMO/BPL channels and systems are proposed. These three fundamental\r\nproperties can play significant role in the evaluation of recently proposed statistical channelmodels for various BPL systems. Fourth,\r\nthe potential of transformation of overhead and underground LV/BPL and MV/BPL distribution grids to an alternative solution\r\nto fiber-to-the-building (FTTB) technology is first revealed. By examining the capacity characteristics of various MIMO scheme\r\nconfigurations and by comparing these capacity results against SISO ones, a new promising urban backbone network seems to be\r\nborn in a smart grid (SG) environment.
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