Performance of time-critical smart grid applications in narrow-band power line communication

A seamless, sustainable and reliable communication infrastructure is crucial to realise smart grid operations and functionalities. The communications infrastructure in smart grid is not only required to be pervasive, scalable, and secure but also expected to be resilient and guarantee a required quality of service (QoS) to an end node. Narrow-band power line communication (NBPLC) is believed to be a natural and cost-effective choice for smart grid communication because it uses the existing infrastructures of the power grid that is much more extensive and pervasive than any other wired or wireless alternatives. This also eliminates the need for additional wire installation and external subscription for data transfer. However, because most smart grid applications have critical timing requirements, the frequency and time-varying characteristics of the power line channel, together with its background noise, limited bandwidth and harmonic interference, result in unacceptable packet losses during service transmission. A communication solution with reliable, timely delivery which supports a given QoS for smart grid applications with critical timing requirements will, although challenging, be highly desirable. This presentation investigates the resilience and performance of a time-critical smart grid application data over power line channels, specifically the DLC (distribution line carrier). It is shown that employing the RoHC (robust header compression) scheme on smart-grid-application IP packets can maximise the bandwidth usage and enhance the low delay and latency on both uplinks and downlinks in a DLC channel.