Optimization of a home automation system using a local power line communication network

A method for optimizing a home-automation system having a plurality of communicating appliances able to exchange information among themselves via a local low-bitrate Power Line Communication (PLC) network, said method comprising:

• an adjusting phase for adjusting a PLC transmission power transmitted by a new communicating appliance joining said local low-bitrate PLC network, wherein said adjusting phase includes the steps of:
• a) installing said new communicating appliance, said new communicating appliance having said PLC-transmission power set to a predefined maximum power in said local low-bitrate PLC network;
• b) cutting any communication in progress on the local low-bitrate PLC network, except for communications in progress of said new communicating appliance;
• c) testing communication with said new communicating appliance for each of the plurality of communicating appliances in the local low-bitrate PLC network with which said new communicating appliance is to be paired, and, in case of a communication failure, automatically incremental increasing a PLC transmission power for each of the plurality of communicating appliances until obtaining a first value of the PLC transmission power for each of the plurality of communicating appliances for which a PLC communication can be initialized between each of the plurality of communicating appliances and said new communicating appliance;
• d) on completion of step c), automatically reducing the PLC transmission power of said new communicating appliance as long as communication between each of the plurality of communicating appliances and said new communicating appliance is operational.