Hybrid Communication Architectures for Distributed Smart Grid Applications

Jianhua Zhang, Adarsh Hasandka, Jin Wei, S. M. Shafiul Alam, Tarek Elgindy, Anthony R. Florita and Bri-Mathias Hodge
Additional contact information
Jianhua Zhang: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO 80401, USA
Adarsh Hasandka: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
Jin Wei: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325, USA
S. M. Shafiul Alam: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO 80401, USA
Tarek Elgindy: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO 80401, USA
Anthony R. Florita: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO 80401, USA
Bri-Mathias Hodge: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO 80401, USA

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 4, 1-16

Abstract: Wired and wireless communications both play an important role in the blend of communications technologies necessary to enable future smart grid communications. Hybrid networks exploit independent mediums to extend network coverage and improve performance. However, whereas individual technologies have been applied in simulation networks, as far as we know there is only limited attention that has been paid to the development of a suite of hybrid communication simulation models for the communications system design. Hybrid simulation models are needed to capture the mixed communication technologies and IP address mechanisms in one simulation. To close this gap, we have developed a suite of hybrid communication system simulation models to validate the critical system design criteria for a distributed solar Photovoltaic (PV) communications system, including a single trip latency of 300 ms, throughput of 9.6 Kbps, and packet loss rate of 1%. The results show that three low-power wireless personal area network (LoWPAN)-based hybrid architectures can satisfy three performance metrics that are critical for distributed energy resource communications.

Keywords: hybrid communication architecture; smart grid communication; distributed smart grid applications; NS3 simulator; PLC; LoWPAN; WiFi Mesh; WiMAX; Ethernet (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/4/871/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/4/871/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:11:y:2018:i:4:p:871-:d:140184

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().