A Lightweight Relay Method for the Highway Tunnel Lighting Control System Based on Power Line Carrier Communication

ABSTRACT

Power line carrier communication (PLCC) technology utilises existing power lines for data transmission, which significantly reduces the costs incurred in system installation and maintenance. This technology has been widely adopted in lighting control systems. However, due to the limited driving capability of communication modules and environmental interferences, relay and routing algorithms are often required to enable reliable long‐distance communication. Existing PLCC‐based networking methods are designed for the complex topological structures of power grids and are thus not suitable for the practical deployment of LED lighting control systems in highway tunnels. In addition, the high complexity of these algorithms renders them incompatible with the limited computing resources of LED controllers used in highway tunnels. This study proposes a lightweight relay algorithm based on an instruction‐response mechanism to realise dynamic topology management and networking of relay nodes. The corresponding communication protocol is defined, and the detailed implementation steps of the algorithm are elaborated. Furthermore, a fault diagnosis and handling strategy is developed for the system. By designing a controller ID numbering scheme, this study enables both segmented and global control of the lamps in highway tunnels. The proposed relay algorithm and control functions are validated via laboratory experiments and field tests. The results show that the relay algorithm enables the successful networking of communication links in accordance with the actual deployment of the LED lighting control system in highway tunnels, which effectively meets the requirements of segmented tunnel lighting control. In comparison with the static fixed relay strategy and the simple greedy relay strategy, the lightweight relay algorithm proposed in this study exhibits superior performance.