Introduction

With the influx of the Internet and multimedia applications in our everyday life, the need for a cost effective solution that offers reliable communication with higher data rates, cannot be overlooked. For this purpose, different communication media have been adopted over the years, including the wireless and the wireline media of communication. We can save the extra cost and effort that would go into installing a new network of cables, if we are able to utilize the in place cables, or the "No New Wires" solution for communication networks.
The digital subscriber line (DSL) and the power lines constitute this category of wireline media. Nevertheless, these ubiquitously available wireline media also have their share of problems, including multipath signal propagation, crosstalk and high noise content in the channel. The application of Multirate signals processing techniques/ wavelet transforms can reduce costs and improve performance in DSL & Power line communication networks.

Wavelets have been favourably applied in almost all aspects of digital wireless communication systems including data compression, source and channel coding, signal denoising, channel modelling and design of transceivers. Multi-carrier modulation based on Wavelet transform is a novel transmission technique and a promising alternative to the well established OFDM/DMT. The greatest motivation for pursuing W-MCM systems lies in the freedom they provide to communication systems designers. By tailoring the design specifications a wavelet based system that best suits an engineering requirement could be conceived.