Interference mitigation

1. A method of interference mitigation between a Digital Subscriber Line, DSL, channel and a Power Line Communication, PLC, channel, said method comprising:

providing, to at least one PLC modem of the PLC channel, instructions to commence crosstalk estimation, said instructions prompting the at least one PLC modem to increase, starting from a predetermined minimum transmit power, a transmit power of data transmission on the PLC channel at a given time or time period defined with respect to a mutual time reference of the DSL channel and the PLC channel,

providing, to a DSL modem of the DSL channel, further instructions to commence the crosstalk estimation, said further instructions prompting the DSL modem to measure a signal-to-noise value at the given time or time period defined with respect to the mutual time reference,

obtaining, from the DSL modem, a control message indicating the measured signal-to-noise value, and

computing a value of a maximum transmit Power Spectral Density in a DSL downstream band for the PLC modem in consideration of the measured signal-to-noise value obtained from the DSL modem to reduce an interference from the PLC channel to the DSL channel.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

obtaining a control message indicating that the DSL channel is transitioned from Initialization to Showtime,

wherein said providing of the instructions to commence crosstalk estimation and said providing of the further instructions to commence crosstalk estimation is in response to said receiving of the control message indicating that the DSL channel is transitioned from Initialization to Showtime.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

providing, to the at least one PLC modem, a control message prompting the at least one PLC modem to reduce the transmit power of data transmission on the PLC channel in a frequency range of DSL channel transmission to the predetermined minimum transmit power,

providing, to the DSL modem, a control message prompting the DSL modem to execute Initialization of the DSL channel.

4. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the instructions to commence crosstalk estimation prompt the PLC modem to iteratively increase, starting from the predetermined minimum transmit power, the transmit power of data transmission on the PLC channel at a plurality of given times or time periods defined with respect to the mutual time reference and by a predetermined amount,

wherein the further instructions to commence crosstalk estimation prompt the DSL modem to measure the signal-to-noise value respectively at each one of the plurality of given times or time periods defined with respect to the mutual time reference.

5. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein said providing of the instructions to the PLC modem comprises:

pre-provisioning the given time or time period to a local storage of the at least one PLC modem.

6. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein said providing of the instructions to commence crosstalk estimation and said providing of the further instructions to commence crosstalk estimation is executed via the DSL channel during Showtime of the DSL channel.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

for each one of a plurality of PLC modems of the PLC channel: determining an expected crosstalk with the DSL channel,

wherein said instructions to commence crosstalk estimation are selectively sent to a given one of the plurality of PLC modems depending on the respectively determined expected crosstalk.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

providing, to the at least one PLC modem, a control message indicating the computed value of the maximum transmit Power Spectral Density and prompting the at least one PLC modem to execute data transmission on the PLC channel employing the value of the maximum transmit Power Spectral Density.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

obtaining, from the DSL modem, a control message indicating the measured signal-to-noise value,

computing a parameter of Showtime-Adaptive Virtual Noise based on the measured signal-to-noise value,

providing, to the DSL modem, a control message indicating the computed parameter of the Showtime-Adaptive Virtual Noise and prompting the DSL modem to generate the Showtime-Adaptive Virtual Noise employing the computed parameter.

10. A device, comprising:

at least one interface configured to provide, to at least one PLC modem of a PLC channel, instructions to commence crosstalk estimation, said instructions prompting the at least one PLC modem to increase, starting from a predetermined minimum transmit power, a transmit power of data transmission on the PLC channel at a given time or time period defined with respect to a mutual time reference of the DSL channel and the PLC channel,

wherein the at least one interface is further configured to provide, to a DSL modem of a DSL channel, further instructions to commence the crosstalk estimation, said further instructions prompting the DSL modem to measure a signal-to-noise value at the given time or time period defined with respect to the mutual time reference,

wherein the device is further configured to obtain, from the DSL modem, a control message indicating the measured signal-to-noise value, and compute a value of a maximum transmit Power Spectral Density in a DSL downstream band for the PLC modem in consideration of the measured signal-to-noise value obtained from the DSL modem to reduce an interference from the PLC channel to the DSL channel.

11. A method of interference mitigation between a DSL channel and a PLC channel, said method comprising:

establishing instructions to commence crosstalk estimation,

in response to said establishing the instructions, increasing, starting from a predetermined minimum transmit power, a transmit power of data transmission on the PLC channel at a given time or time period defined with respect to a mutual time reference of the DSL channel and the PLC channel,

providing, to a DSL modem of the DSL channel, further instructions to commence the crosstalk estimation, said further instructions prompting the DSL modem to measure a signal-to-noise value at the given time or time period defined with respect to the mutual time reference,

obtaining, from the DSL modem, a control message indicating the measured signal-to-noise value, and

computing a value of a maximum transmit Power Spectral Density in a DSL downstream band for the PLC modem in consideration of the measured signal-to-noise value obtained from the DSL modem to reduce an interference from the PLC channel to the DSL channel.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

receiving a control message prompting to reduce the transmit power of data transmission on the PLC channel in a frequency range of DSL channel transmission to the predetermined minimum transmit power,

in response to said receiving of said control message, reducing the transmit power of the data transmission on the PLC channel in the frequency range of DSL channel transmission to the predetermined minimum transmit power.

13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

in response to said establishing of the instructions to commence crosstalk estimation, iteratively increasing, starting from the predetermined minimum transmit power, the transmit power of data transmission on the PLC channel at a plurality of given times or time periods defined with respect to the mutual time reference.

14. The method of claim 11 ,

wherein the instructions to commence crosstalk estimation are at least partly retrieved from a local storage of a PLC modem of the PLC channel.

15. The method of claim 11 ,

wherein the instructions to commence crosstalk estimation are at least partly received via the DSL channel, preferably during Showtime of the DSL channel.

16. A PLC modem, comprising:

at least one processor configured to establish instructions to commence crosstalk estimation,

an interface configured to execute data transmission on a PLC channel,

wherein the at least one processor, in response to said establishing of the instructions, is configured to control the interface to increase, starting from a predetermined minimum transmit power, a transmit power of the data transmission on the PLC channel at a given time or time period defined with respect to a mutual time reference of the DSL channel and the PLC channel,

wherein the at least one processor is configured to provide, to a DSL modem of the DSL channel, further instructions to commence the crosstalk estimation, said further instructions prompting the DSL modem to measure a signal-to-noise value at the given time or time period defined with respect to the mutual time reference,

wherein the at least one processor is configured to obtain, from the DSL modem, a control message indicating the measured signal-to-noise value, and compute a value of a maximum transmit Power Spectral Density in a DSL downstream band for the PLC modem in consideration of the measured signal-to-noise value obtained from the DSL modem to reduce an interference from the PLC channel to the DSL channel.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined minimum transmit power is a non-zero value.

18. The device of claim 10 , wherein the predetermined minimum transmit power is a non-zero value.

19. The method of claim 11 , wherein the predetermined minimum transmit power is a non-zero value.

20. The PLC modem of claim 16 , wherein the predetermined minimum transmit power is a non-zero value.